Partially Damaged, Nonrefundable
by Gysecune
Summary: Centered around Rion, Cain, and a small apartment in Michaelangelo City. Rion must try and live a normal life, while dealing with the loss of Ash and watching after Lilia. Yaoi.
1. Jumbled

Disclaimer: No owning of Galerians is done by me. Ahahaha.

A/N: I know that there aren't that many differences between Galerians: Rion and the game, but I'm going to have to say that this follows the game more closely. There's going to be lots of yaoi ahead (yay!), but this chapter only contains minimal amounts and hints. A little bit of Cain and Rion, and then there's some Ash/Rion kissing going on. I figure that _technically_ Cain and Rion aren't brothers, because they were created artificially. One other note – I'm so glad there's finally a Galerians section!

Chapter One – Jumbled

"_Rion..."_

Something coarse, scratchy ground into his skin – face, arm, hip – made him itch. It was fabric, brown and worn. He was on...a couch? His eyes traveled up from a spot of stuffing leaking out of the sofa to a window...

He was sinking in bewilderment. There was a boy sitting on the ledge of the window with his knees drawn up to his chest. Blonde hair, and he looked so much like...himself...

_A memory?_

Possibly, because Lilia was walking up to him. The boy in the window, at least, the one that looked like him. But then he thought maybe it wasn't a memory after all, because he didn't remember this. Lilia had never worn that knit winter cap – and in such searing heat. It was unbelievably stuffy, humid. The oppressive warmth descended _into_ his body.

The boy turned his head to look at Lilia. Green eyes. Cain.

Rion stopped breathing.

Finally, he managed a gasp, pulling oxygen into his lungs, and the memories, the ones he wanted to keep always but shouldn't be popping up now, began flashing under his eyelids. He groped for something, anything, a name – "Ash" – but all that he got was a mouthful of air.

They noticed. Heard, maybe. Confusion and – couldn't let anyone see – fear paralyzed him, gripped his body. Hands were shaking him? Or he was shaking on his own.

Get away, get away, get away –

"Rion? It's me, Lilia..."

"Hey... Hey, it's okay..."

A growing weakness overwhelmed his body. Everything faded.

/-/

The ceiling.

He blinked, allowing his vision to refocus. And remembered. The couch, the window...

"You awake?"

...Cain.

But his muscles wouldn't respond to him. He wanted to struggle, wanted to fight this... "Lilia –!" he choked out.

"She's sleeping," Cain informed him calmly, kneeling beside the couch so that they were eye level. "You can't keep panicking, y'know, or you'll just pass out again. That's why we had to give you sedatives –"

"What...?" Not good.

And this wasn't the Cain he remembered at all... The last time they had seen each other, Cain had been jealous, vengeful, angry. Now he was quite composed. Last time, he had been wearing an odd jumble of leather, though it didn't seem to cover very much. Now he was wearing a blue shirt and jeans, both of which were very loose-fitting, and sneakers. Last time, Cain had been _dead_. Yet here he was, clearly alive.

"Well, you've been out for a week..." He rocked backwards on his heels but lost his balance, falling in a rather ungraceful manner. "Uh... Want some water?"

Rion had hardly noticed in the fog of questions he had, but his throat did feel like it was lined with sawdust. "Sure..."

Cain flung himself up, straightened his messy hair (and didn't make much progress with it, as it was naturally that way), and walked off behind Rion's head, where he could only guess the kitchen was.

As he waited, he could only wonder... He didn't know where Ash was. He didn't know where _he_ was. It seemed to be an apartment, but the idea of Cain living normally without Dorothy was a strange thought.

There was a rummaging sound and that of running water. In a moment, Cain was back with a chipped glass. "Here. You can't drink on your own, so..." Cain slipped a hand behind his head and brought the glass to his lips.

Despite the persistent wishes for it not to, his face began to burn. Their eyes locked, and the color of Cain's eyes hit him as hard as the water splashing down his parched throat. Both were cool, refreshing, and it was if he was drowning willingly –

"Rion? The water's gone..." Cain raised an eyebrow, amusement clearly written in the turn of his mouth.

Rion glanced away. Even when Lilia had seen him naked, he hadn't gotten embarrassed. Perhaps it was because he was too excited to have a body at the time, or maybe it was because she _was_ Lilia, after all. And when Ash had kissed him – his tongue darted out to lick his lips – he had been too shocked to be embarrassed. The last kiss had been entirely of his own choice, however. He hadn't _had_ to kiss him to transfer the virus.

_What a great time to be thinking about my sexuality._ He frowned and sighed.

"You have questions, right?" Cain set the glass beside the couch and drew his knees up to his chest, a mimicry of the position Rion had earlier witnessed.

"How..." He focused on the ceiling again. "How are you still alive?"

"How are _you_?" Cain responded simply. "We'll never die. They'll never _let_ us..."

This didn't even fully answer one question, instead opening up too many doors to others. For starters... "Who's 'they'?"

"Mothe – Dorothy. She thought we could be of help to her with Ash." He let out a short, bitter laugh. "How wrong she was. By then, we had all discovered how she was just an insane bitch trying to _use_ us. Christ, I hate her." Cain paused, and Rion could hear him swallow. "It was something that took me too long to figure out. Rita and Rainheart knew... Fuck, I don't know why it took me so long."

"What about Birdman?" The question was out as soon as he thought it. There were just so many swimming around in his head...

"...Birdman? He's..."

Rion turned his head away from Cain, figuring he had mistakenly hit a sore spot and not wanting to keep watching Cain's expression grow visibly more pained.

"Ah..." Cain closed his eyes, shaking his head. "He's a bastard."

"Oh."

"I...never want to see him again."

The awkward silence stretched out between them.

"Heh. Sorry..." Cain scratched the back of his head, almost looking apologetic. "Once the drugs wear off, I can take you to see Lilia, if she's awake by then."

_Sorry for what he's said or for giving me drugs?_ It was possible that he would never know. Anyone could see that a heavy hardship was weighing on him, but Rion knew well enough not to ask.

But there was something else... _That voice._ It had been there when he first woke up. _His voice... Ash..._

"Where is Ash?" His tone was firm enough to surprise even himself. He was determined not to show any signs of weakness. He wouldn't. Not so much because of Cain or anyone else, but because if he gave in, he would feel like he was dying again.

"Didn't you defeat him? After your body was found, you were revived and recovered from data." At Rion's questioning gaze, he added, "At least that's what Lilia tells me. Guess it was easier the second time around."

"How is she?" Even as he asked the question, he knew. Dug his fingernails into his palms and clenched his eyes shut, but he could only hope against the facts. He _knew_.

"She's...very sick." He wouldn't look at Rion.

"I know."

"You asked." Cain abruptly hopped up from his position on the floor. "She sleeps a lot, but I'm sure...she'll wake up soon, so just rest a little while?" Without waiting for an answer, he left in the direction he had gone for Rion's water.

Rion lay there silently, listening to his own breathing and the thudding of his heart in his chest. There could be an infinite number of beats for all he knew. He was sure he would never be allowed the release of death.

It was then he realized how tired he was. Tired of losing hopes and people. Lilia. Ash. And his body was also tired. Sleep probably wasn't a bad idea, but he couldn't go to sleep without hearing her voice echo inside his head.

_Lilia..._

In his heart, he hadn't yet accepted the inevitability of her death. He recognized that he never would. She was the girl who had saved him, the one who would love him always – though he was sometimes conflicted as to whether it was he she really loved or a boy who died long ago. Even as a shadow, an imitation, he couldn't let her life slip away. She deserved better. He felt sick and heavy with blame, fighting off the "if only"s.

A hideous funeral march fluttered into his brain, promising nightmares. He wasn't strong enough to resist the lull of sleep.

/-/

"Rion... Rion, wake up..."

_Ugh..._

He was drenched in sweat. It matted his hair to his forehead, caused his clothes to cling to his body. Through window above a small TV set, Rion could see the sun setting.

"Why is it so hot?" Rion mumbled tiredly, cracking open an eye to see Cain peering down at him.

"It's summer." Though he didn't exactly look unaffected by the heat, either, as his flushed face indicated. "It usually rains all the time here, but not today. And these apartments have no cooling system."

Rion groaned.

Cain smirked. "But hey, I'm gonna get some bread and milk, so c'mon. I don't want to go alone." He offered a hand, and Rion accepted, against his better judgment.

And promptly collapsed right into Cain's arms.

"Not too steady yet?" Cain asked into his ear, and his lips were close enough to brush skin.

Rion nodded in an almost drunken way, falling back onto the couch. "What?" he muttered, because Cain was staring, and damn if his face wasn't doing that heating-up thing in front of him _again_.

"You can't wear that." Cain pointed to the clothing in question.

Funny he had never noticed before, but his clothes were burned and torn, and the zipper on his shirt was busted. The majority of it was probably from later battles, and the broken zipper was likely from his encounter with Romero, because he had fought Ash as data.

"There are a lot of perverts around here," Cain notified him laughingly.

Taken aback, Rion could only gape at him. As if having people talk to his navel during conversations wasn't bad enough... Hey, he hadn't picked out the shirt in the first place.

"Here, I'll get you something else..." Cain motioned for Rion to follow him.

The kitchen was plain, simple, and devoid of almost anything but the usual things like a refrigerator and table. Well, there was one thing that stood out...

_Rita?!_

She didn't look a day older. However, the first thing that drew his attention was that she was passed out with a bottle of vodka near her head. That, and she was barely wearing anything.

Cain sighed. "She's always doing that," he muttered angrily. "Damnit... I thought I got rid of all the vodka, too. Guess not."

Rion followed Cain down the short hallway to the left, which had two doors at the end of it.

"This is the bedroom," Cain indicated, pointing to the right. "That's the bathroom."

Cain turned the knob, and Rion suddenly found himself in a crowded bedroom. Twisted in the sheets of a double-sized bed, a denim-covered leg poking out, was a loudly snoring Rainheart. An enormous rope of drool was sticking from his bottom lip to his green sweatshirt.

Cain rolled his eyes and crouched down, apparently searching for something underneath the bed. Though watching this proved to be entertaining (Cain was having difficulties, making little noises of impatience, as his back-end moved in a variety of interesting ways), Rion's attention was caught by the bunk bed. Someone was nestled in the top bunk...

_Lilia._

He walked over to the bed, as if in a trance, and stepped on his tiptoes to peer over the top bunk. She... She was so pale... His fingertips almost reached out for her face, but then he remembered that he didn't want to wake her. He studied her, took note of the blankets drawn up to her chin, the weary expression etched into her face, even in sleep.

"Rion?" Cain had come up behind him, and he hadn't even noticed. "Here're some clothes."

"Thank you."

Cain only smiled sadly.

/-/

It was a small bathroom, and the bare necessities – a toilet, sink, and shower – had hardly any space between them. Rion was visibly reminded of the bathrooms in Babylon Hotel. Everything had at least some rust on it, and an aura of filth encased it all. There was even a note in a corner of the smudged mirror above the sink.

_Put down the damn toilet seat and wash your hands._

_- Rita_

Rion couldn't help but smirk at this. He had a mental image of Rita, whip in hand, snappishly ordering Birdman, Cain, and Rainheart around while they meekly kept their heads lowered. After the thought of the whip graced his mind, he wondered when he had become such a pervert. Then he suddenly wondered where Birdman was –

_A ballerina in a black dress, hanging from a bathroom ceiling..._

He shivered, almost dropped the bundle of clothing, and then found himself clutching it tightly to his chest. This bathroom looked too much like the ones of Babylon Hotel. It was just a horrible flashback.

Rion examined the clothing in his arms. It was just a plain black T-shirt and a pair of blue cargo pants. It wasn't something that would stand out, but then again, Rion didn't _want_ to stand out. The less he was noticed, the better, as far as he was concerned.

And now...he would leave to help get groceries. Still, he had a feeling that things could get even stranger.

/-/

"But why do we have to r –"

He was cut short as Cain's hand wrapped around his wrist and dragged him along. Rion knew he could have kept up easier had he not needed time to still recover. It was the last coherent thought he had before adrenaline took over completely.

The thudding of boots hitting the ground was getting closer and quicker, just like Rion's breath and the slamming of his heart beneath his ribs.

A garbage can unexpectedly evaporated in his field of vision. Cain lashed his arm out, knocking it over, but didn't stop running. Rion heard the man grunt and stumble over the can directly behind him. It only made him move his feet faster. Truthfully, his lungs were burning, and his body was bogged down by exhaustion.

"Here!" Cain directed under his breath, and they turned down an alley and nearly fell into another.

Rion leaned gratefully against a wall. The brick was cool against the back of his sweaty neck and arms. He slid down a little bit, ready to collapse, but Cain held him firmly by the shoulder. The man ran past, oblivious to their actual location, and then he released him. They both sank to the ground, flushed and panting.

"Why couldn't we have just attacked him?" asked Rion, who, now that he had almost entirely regained his breath, was slightly confused. The adrenaline had evaporated, leaving only puzzlement.

"You have no PPECs left in your system," Cain explained. "And killing is too messy and would draw too much attention."

There was an extended silence in which Rion picked at the sole of one of his boots.

_Not used to running...instead of fighting._

He also wondered why the guy was chasing after them. Insanity or... Rion had seen those looks before. The looks someone is given before they are usually seized as prey.

Ash. Nitro. Others. Lust.

He bit his lip. It was different with Ash... Wasn't it?

Speaking of looks...what was with the one Cain was giving him?

Rion raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Heh, I was just thinking..." Cain looked away. "...that you've really grown."

A moment of silence, and then Rion replied, "Yeah, so have you, I guess."

/-/

By the time they returned, it was dark. An eerie silence filled the apartment.

"Is everyone sleeping?" It seemed more like Rion was talking to the blackness or the shadows or even no one in particular, but Cain answered, which is what he had been aiming for, anyway.

"Rainheart always sleeps for awhile. Rita's out...y'know."

He didn't. But he didn't ask, either, as they made their way to the table in the shadowy kitchen. Rion set the bread down and waited as Cain swung the milk into the refrigerator.

"She's out...getting money the easy way." He exhaled and sat down on a chair. "The idiot. I thought she was too smart for that."

Rion was surprised, to put it mildly. For one, he had thought Rita had too much pride for something like that, especially putting herself to the service of humans – and in such a degrading way.

"Do you work anywhere?" Rion unexpectedly asked, hoping to break the awkward quiet.

"I bus tables at a shithole of a restaurant nearby..." Cain murmured. He obviously had his mind on other things. "Mmmf. Hungry still."

Well, Rion hadn't quite thought it was food.

Cain turned and stuck his head in the fridge again. "You can use the shower if you want," he offered.

He probably needed one, as he wasn't even aware of that last time he had showered. "Thanks."

/-/

It had taken Rion a tiny bit of time to figure out how to work the rusty taps, but it was definitely worth it. Ever since he could remember – well, they were Rion's memories, but he felt the same now, he was sure – he had loved long, hot showers.

_Taking up all the hot water wouldn't be the best way to start things off, though. The water bill..._

Letting his eyelids slide shut, he sucked in air and focused on the feel of the water beating against his skin and coursing down his body. The plinking of waterdrops in the tub soothed him. He had always liked rain. Trailing his fingers down his chest, he paused. He still had wounds from recent battles and he could match all of them with the people who had given them to him. A slash on his shoulder from Parano, a cut on his collarbone from Nitro, nothing from Spider, because he hadn't been that dangerous. However, he healed quickly, likely because of being a Galerian. At the time, he had barely felt any of the pain, because the adrenaline coursing through his veins blocked it out. All he could think about was his own survival. That's all he had ever wanted really, and he had never enjoyed killing, except for...Dorothy and Romero... Even thinking the man's name sent a fresh surge of anger through him. There was a mark from him, too, underneath his ribcage. Touching it, even lightly, stung. Biting his lip, he realized that there were...no marks from...

_Ash..._

Why did it have to be this way? Standing there, alone, he felt as if his very existence was cursed.

A funny choked up feeling worked its way into his throat, and his eyes began to water. Rion could always pass it off as water from the showerhead.

But he knew the truth.

/-/

The first thing that Rion thought was that the playground had an unnatural air to it. It was unlike any playground he had ever been in.

The second was that he must be dreaming, because he last remembered falling asleep on the couch in the living room.

The oppressing fog left a thick, heavy weight on his body, clinging to his clothes and making it difficult to see. He could make out the faint outline of a swing set, though. Despite his initial uneasiness, he nearly smiled at the memory of he and Lilia swinging... It had been one of there favorite things to do as children. Even if it hadn't really been him, this thought was comforting.

He sat down on a swing and let his boots settle into the gravel. There seemed to be no purpose to being here –

"Rion."

He started at the voice, so familiar, to his right. Without so much as a noise, this person was immediately there...

"Ash?!" He knew he was gaping, but did it matter at this point? Ash was _here_, right beside him, definitely not lost forever... "Is...it really you?"

Ash smirked in his usual "Look, I'm composed and self-assured" manner. "Am I so easily impersonated?"

"No... Ah, well..." Oh, he didn't quite know what to say in a situation like this. "This is only a dream, isn't it...?"

"I can contact you in your dreams. As far as I know, this isn't an unusual occurrence."

"_I've_ never thought of it before..." He trailed off, examining his hands and avoiding Ash's eyes.

"You have something on your mind," Ash observed.

Rion blinked in surprise. "Can you...actually read my mind?"

"No. You are occasionally very obvious."

Rion blew out air in an almost-laugh. "It's just... I guess I was unconscious, but I had this dream that we both died ten years from now." He shifted his legs, unsure. "Together."

"I was wondering if that would be a mistake..." Ash pondered aloud. "I sent you images of the possible future – what could have been, but you left just as you should have."

"Are you angry?" he questioned tentatively.

Ash gave a small laugh. "I should be, shouldn't I? Even you expect it. How very selfish... How very human of me, to want to keep you."

_Keep me?_ Rion felt a little shiver go up his spine. And the way Ash was gazing at him certainly wasn't helping. "When did the dream begin?" _When did these feelings begin?_ Hopefully by asking that, he could guide his thoughts away from the subject of Ash and _that_.

"Some time after you kissed me, I believe, was where reality ended."

So much for taking his mind off it. He could feel his face heating up.

"That wasn't necessary to transfer the virus, Rion," Ash informed him, chuckling slightly.

"I...know."

He turned away, sure that his face was by now crimson, and rocked gently on the swing.

"What are you doing?"

"Swinging." His embarrassment was momentarily forgotten when he caught the puzzled look Ash sent his way. "Oh... You've never done it."

"Do you mean that these objects actually have a purpose? They're not some kind of unusual chair?" At Rion's amused nod, he attempted this.

Unsuccessfully.

Maybe it was that Ash didn't balance himself correctly – Rion wasn't sure and could only guess – but it sent him sprawling onto the gravel headfirst with a loud smack.

"Ash?" It took all of his willpower not to snort. He had never seen Ash look so...undignified. "Do you need any help?" He jumped off the swing and bent over Ash, offering his hand.

Ash's response to this was to furrow his brows. "You find this funny."

"Definitely." There was no hiding is smile now.

His hand clasped around Ash's, and he prepared to pull him. Instead, he was tugged down and stumbled, flying on top of him.

"Sorry..." Things couldn't possibly get more awkward than this. He instantly reacted, starting to pull himself up. Not that he wanted to. Ash's body was hard and solid against his own, and it suddenly struck Rion that their bodies had never been this close.

"Rion."

A hand grasped his forearm. He couldn't move.

He wouldn't move.

"Ash...?"

Slowly, temptingly, Ash slipped a hand onto the back of his neck and gently brought his head down so that his lips were grazing Rion's throat.

Rion stilled, even forgetting about breathing for a moment, and concentrated on the hot breath beating on his skin, the mouth on his neck... Teeth delicately nipped at his pulse, and he couldn't help it – a breathless gasp tore out of his throat.

_Is this... Is this really happening?_

"She's calling you," Ash calmly remarked. "Hm. Your heartbeat is quite rapid at this time." His hand pressed up against Rion's chest.

"Who?" Rion forced out, more than a little distracted.

"Lilia, of course," Ash replied, like it was absolutely obvious.

_What?_ "Lilia?"

"Rion, are you awake?"

His eyes widened. It was pitch black all around him, Ash was gone, and...that was Lilia's voice, unless he was mistaken.

"Lilia?" he tried.

Then he remembered... He had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, so that... It was all a dream?

_What the hell is wrong with me?_

"Are you okay?" Her quiet voice cut through the darkness.

"Lilia... I... I'm so relieved." His voice was breaking, just as he was.

Though he couldn't see her, he knew she was smiling. "So am I... We had to revive you, and then you were unconscious..."

Her weight pressed closer to him, and he reached out blindly to touch her. It would be further proof that she was alive and mercifully safe, for now, at least.

"I'm so sorry, Lilia... He – He took you, and I should've protect –"

"No, don't say that!" she whispered fiercely, and he realized that there were some parts of her that would always remain the same. "I won't let you take the blame for this..." The girl who loved him, regardless.

"Lilia –" He wrapped his arms around her and embraced her tightly, wishing that he could just make the suffering stop.

"I'm dying," she murmured, voice muffled in his shirt. "I know I'm dying, Rion – No one can help me, and...it isn't fair for you have to watch me _die –_" Her voice cracked, and fresh tears soaked through Rion's shirt to wet his skin.

"Lilia." He coursed fingers through her hair, traced patterns on her back, listened to how hoarse his own voice was. "I can for you."

Without words, Lilia only clenched her fists in his shirt and sobbed silently.

_I'll never lose you. Not completely._


	2. Waking Up

Disclaimer: The same one from the first chapter applies. Oh, and I hold no hatred for pigeons.

A/N: This chapter contains the following terrifying elements: abuse to and by pigeons, blatant mentions of Candy Land, and sensual groping of backbone vertebrae. It's never to late to turn back, people. Also, anything in between slashes is telepathic communication, unless it's those little divider /-/ things.

Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child, Yuuka Yagami, Caeli Et Terra, ShadowSilence. You guys roxxor. I'm really glad you said my descriptions were simple, because before, I used to go waaaay overboard with describing things until the point it got boring (back before my days here at ). Even my sister commented on it, yikes. XD And ShadowSilence, about that thing with Lilia, I agree completely! I totally think she would support him. And the outfit... Noticed that, too. I was like, "Wow, Lilia even went through the trouble of picking out accessories!" XD

Chapter Two – Waking Up

"I said no," Rita grumbled as she buttered her toast. "No is no, Rainheart. How do you actually expect us to feed it?"

"Us meaning you and me, right?" Cain interjected, sitting down at the table with a plate of eggs.

Rion watched the argument with interest, petting the object of the argument. He had never had a pet before, but he had to admit...

"It's cute." Lilia lightly scratched behind the kitten's ears, causing it to arch in Rion's lap.

It was black with a white chest, face, and legs, and it had to be the fuzziest, most adorable thing Rion had ever seen. Too bad his parents had been sticklers and weren't overly fond of inviting animals into their house. He had always had a soft spot for animals, which was part of the reason he never killed Spider's tarantula. That, and it was innocent.

"Ritaaa," Rainheart whined. "Everyone likes it but you!"

"I never said I _liked_ it," Cain protested, but the corners of his mouth twitched.

"Whatever," Rita muttered. "As soon as that thing pisses on anything, I'm tossing it out the window."

"I think _you_ need thrown out the window," Cain retorted.

"I think you need your food taken away!"

"Mmmf!" Cain swallowed, trying to take back his plate. "It's _my_ food!"

Holding the plate above his head, she snapped back, "Well, I do all the cooking around here!"

"I make some, too!"

"Rita's ramen is better than yours," Rainheart pointed out solemnly.

"Arghhh... Just because I drain out all the water and add soy sauce? That's a lame reason –"

"He's right, Cain," Rita interrupted. "It tastes bad –"

"Well, I like it! Now give me back my plate..."

As Rion had only been with them a day, he didn't have much to say. Lilia seemed to think staying out of it was wise, as well.

Rainheart took advantage of Rita's noticeable distraction with the disagreement and scampered away from the table but not before scooping up the kitten.

And some time later, between Cain's odd ramen cooking sessions, bickering, caring for a kitten (something Rion had never done before but valiantly attempted to help with, anyway), long card games, and many, many discussions, Rion learned to live again.

/-/

_Something just hit me._ It was the only thing Rion's exhausted brain could register. _Probably Cain. Again._

Ever since Rion had accidentally discovered that the couch also doubled as a foldout bed (about two weeks after his arrival, and it had now been a month), Cain had been sleeping next to him. He had begged and pleaded – on his knees, even – and Rion couldn't say no in the first place. It wasn't his home to begin with, and he couldn't blame Cain for not wanting to share with Rainheart, who was quite possibly the worst bedmate ever. He drooled heinous amounts of saliva and snored the loudest Rion had heard in his entire life. Rion didn't mind sharing, anyway. The only problem was that Cain was prone to nightmares.

"Cain?" Rion called out quietly in the darkness. "You awake?"

"Nnnghh..."

"Cain!" he tried again, pitching his tone a little sharper.

The only response he received was harsh breathing and more incoherent mumblings. Rion could see, from the moonlight that gleamed off Cain's skin, that he was soaked in sweat, yet his lips were trembling as if he were cold.

"Cain..." Rion sat upright and crawled over to where Cain was huddled in the sheets, hoping to wake him from the evidently hellish nightmare he was experiencing.

"St...op... Birdman..."

_I can't let this continue..._

Gripping Cain by the shoulders, Rion gave him a fierce shake.

Eyes flashing, he screamed and tore out of the sheets. "_Stop_!"

"Shh!" Rion wrapped his arms around him, hoping it would calm him down. "It's me. Be quiet, or you'll wake them up..."

Cain complied. Short, raspy breaths were all Rion heard.

"Rion..."

He was immediately taken aback. Cain sounded so frightened and on-edge...

"Hey, you okay?" he questioned, pulling back and searching Cain's face.

Cain managed a nod.

"You want something to drink?"

"Yeah," Cain answered hoarsely. "My head hurts, too."

"Be right back," Rion assured him, heading for the kitchen. Once there, he filled a glass with water and reached for the bottle of Delmetor.

Even though there was little need of such forceful protection, Rion, Cain, and Rita still took the drugs that they had depended on for so long. It was something that couldn't be helped. An addiction.

Rainheart was the only exception, as his overwhelming fear of "medicine" actually outweighed his need for the drugs. But from what Cain had told him, Rion knew that the period of withdrawal had been hell for Rainheart _and_ everyone around him at that time.

"Thanks." Cain accepted the glass of water and pill from Rion's hand.

Rion climbed back into bed, and without even thinking about it, settled in right next to Cain.

He was shaking.

"Cain..." Rion murmured. "Are you really okay?"

"'S fine," Cain mumbled, plopping down on his pillow.

For only a mere moment, it was quiet. Rion peered up at the ceiling unblinking, thinking. _Birdman...? That's what he said..._

Almost as if Cain could read Rion's mind, he asked (all traces of sleepiness gone from his voice), "Did I say anything?"

Rion tensed, regretting it as soon as he had done it, because Cain surely felt it. "...No."

"Liar," Cain breathed. "You're a bad liar – You always were when were younger, too."

"Cain... I..." ...didn't know what to say, it seemed.

"Tell me something. Or ask...anything. I need to take my mind off this, and I can't get to sleep, anyway."

Rion turned over onto his stomach and stole a glance at Cain – or intended to, at least – but something froze him in place. The moonlight reflected off Cain's eyes, and they were very beautiful but sad at the same time.

_Did I really just think that?_

"What?" Cain must have noticed Rion looking at him.

"Your eyes are nice," he blurted out. _Ugh... That was...stupid..._

Cain blinked. "Wha...?" But in a matter of seconds, his expression had gone darker. "...I don't like my eyes very much." He wouldn't look at Rion.

"Why is that?" Rion was feeling dumber by the minute.

"Her mistake. I couldn't look like Rion with green eyes, could I? So she made you."

Suddenly, Rion understood it all – why he Cain had been so jealous before they fought... "I'm...sorry."

"Don't be." Cain exhaled heavily. "I would've been lonely without you. It was really idiotic of me to turn against you like that."

Rion barely had to time to pass this through his mind before Cain rolled over and – accidentally, Rion thought – brushed his lips against Rion's earlobe where his earring was.

Rion stiffened, expecting Cain to move or apologize, but neither of those things happened.

"Hmm... You still have it. That's cool." Fingers traced the earring and then lightly tugged. "Oh, sorry."

_Did I make a noise?_ He must have. It was just that he felt kind of tingly...

"I gave that to you so that you would remember me, but you still forgot," Cain mused, turning over on his side.

"I wondered about that." He had to say _something_ in this awkward situation. "The real Rion didn't have an earring..."

"Nope," Cain mumbled sleepily. "You were really nervous, though... Heh, heh..."

Rion closed his eyes and urged sleep to take over. It seemed that Cain was already out.

_How am I supposed to get back to sleep after that?_

/-/

"Cain, I think you should _gently_ feed the birds," Lilia suggested, a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Pfft." Cain balled up another chunk of bread and whacked it into a pigeon's head.

"It... It looks pissed, Cain." Rion frowned as the pigeon's eyes glinted dangerously.

They were sitting on a bench in a relatively peaceful, grass-covered park, with Lilia seated in the middle.

"What, are you scared?" Another ball of bread.

"No, but it might bite you or something. At this rate, I really hope it does," Rion shot back.

Another ball of bread. It certainly couldn't be said that the pigeons were softly cooing anymore.

"Cain, he's right," Lilia agreed, eying the birds apprehensively. "I think they'll attack us..."

Rion was about to reply when a light-haired man wearing ass-squeezing pants and a skin-tight shirt walked _right_ by him. For some reason, he reminded him of Ash.

What he had wanted to say came out as "Uhhnn..."

"Rion?" came Lilia's voice.

"Er – Huh?" _Did they see me looking?!_

Judging by the knowing, amused expressions they were sporting, he would have to say yes.

..._Shit._

"Must run in the gene pool," Cain decided casually, whipping another lump of bread at the birds.

"I – Ah – What?!" Rion stammered. He could feel a hot flush burgeoning on his face. In fact, he was so embarrassed that it was creeping down his neck. Cain had never exactly told him that he was gay, but quite recently, Rion had been taking note of the...erm, interesting comments Cain made about guys.

"Rion, it's okay to admit it..." Lilia giggled shyly.

Her gaped at her, stunned and flustered. "You..." _Oh, it figures. _"You guys were talking about this, weren't you?" he guessed, keeping his voice low.

"Uh-huh," Cain confirmed, grinning. "It was kind of obvious when you were talking in your sleep at night. 'Oh, Ash,'" he mimicked, high-pitched and girly, fluttering his eyelashes and clasping his hands to his heart.

"Shut. Up." He glared at Cain, boiling with embarrassment.

"'I am in lov –'"

"Oh, that's it!"

Cain was cut off as Rion swiped at him from across Lilia.

Alas, in dodging this maneuver, he tumbled off the bench and right into the crowd of enraged pigeons.

"Aaaahhh!" he screamed. "Noooo!"

The pigeons brutally seized the opportunity for revenge and began pecking the hell out of him.

Despite Cain's torment, Rion and Lilia burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"My...sides..." Lilia gasped, clutching her ribs.

"My nipple!" Cain cried out, writhing on the ground. "Fucker!"

A mother walking by shielded her daughter's ears and scowled at them.

As hilarious as it all was, Rion knew what they had to do. They had to save Cain from the tyrannical grasp of the infuriated pigeons. And a nipple-biting was most certainly grounds for a saving. So finally, Rion and Lilia bent over the violent birds and shooed them away (though half-heartedly, it must be noted).

"Urrgh..." Cain was covered in peck marks and dirt, and his hair was even messier than usual. "Rion... Come here..."

"What?" Rion hunched down lower.

And received a painful twisting of one of his nipples.

"Aaaagh!" Rion shouted, springing a foot away from Cain and grasping his wounded nipple. "What the hell did you do _that_ for?!"

"That's what it feels like – only not as painful, lucky you – when a pigeon bites your nipple," Cain hissed. He was still lying prone on the ground. "It was your fault."

"Okay, then. Never mind that we just saved your ass," Rion reminded him crossly. "I'm going to leave you there and go home."

"You're the one who taunted the birds," Lilia added.

They started walking away.

"...Guys?" A pause. "Guys, don't leave me here! They're coming baaack!"

Only later did it occur to Rion that he had called the apartment "home."

/-/

This place again. The playground.

"Ash?" Rion called out.

His voice echoed back at him. Other than that, there were no sounds.

At the familiar sight of the swing set, feelings of relief washed over him. At least he wasn't completely lost.

Not that it mattered, anyway. This was a dream after all, right?

He sat on a swing and began swaying back and forth restlessly. _This is my dream... If I want Ash to be here, why isn't he?_ That's right – He _did_ want to see Ash. Cain and Lilia had even kindly teased him about the attraction he felt towards him.

"Ash..."

"Yes?"

Surprised, Rion jumped in his seat and snapped his head so quickly to the right that he got a crick in his neck.

"Nnnh..." He held his neck in pain, waiting out the burning sensation. "Shit, you startled me!"

"My name is Ash," he stated matter-of-factly.

Rion blinked. "Did you just make a joke?"

"Why, yes, I did. Does this come as a surprise to you?" Ash's voice was calm; his face, impassive. Except for one thing. He was smiling just the least bit.

"Hmph." He smiled back.

It wasn't fair, really. To feel like this around someone who he would never see again. And this was only a dream.

"This sucks." It slipped out before he could stop it, and he didn't even think about the impact it would have an Ash.

Stifling quiet.

"I wish you could come back with me..." he clarified, just to make sure Ash wouldn't think he meant that he disliked being with him.

"I don't have a body to return to in the first place, Rion."

"I know." It was kind of difficult to push the words out. His throat felt tight or something, like his own body was trying to strangle him. "Would you still... Would you still want to kill all the humans?"

"They're disgusting," Ash maintained, "but it would be a pointless effort to destroy them all. But if it so pleases you to be with them, I suppose I can't go through with it. Still...greedy, selfish, filthy –"

"_Lilia_ is human, Ash," Rion interrupted, a little more sharply than he had intended. "And you... You say 'filthy,' but that didn't stop you from..." He trailed off, remembering all too clearly what Ash had done to him the last time they had been together here. Something grazed his throat, and he realized with a jolt that it was his own fingertips unconsciously stroking his neck. "Why did you do that?" he asked, keeping his eyes locked on his feet.

"Because I like you, of course."

"Why no one else?" His voice strangely soft, he searched Ash's eyes.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ash let out a low chuckle, sending shivers down Rion's spine. "Because you're you."

Rion noted – as all the blood in his body seemed to rush up to his head – that Ash plainly found nothing odd about openly passing his eyes over his body.

Or reaching out and trailing fingers over his hip.

"Ash... I..." He definitely wasn't going to be able to get past stammering at this time. "Uhhn..." _Think of something...! That...feels good – Damnit, something besides that!_

Without breaking his gaze away from Rion's, Ash _slowly_ and inched his way under his shirt, feeling up a notch of his backbone, then another –

Rion shuddered. _I'm going to die..._

"Oh, sorry if I'm interrupting anything! Heh, heh..."

_WHAT. THE. FUCKING. HELL._

The chains of the swing rattled violently as Rion whirled around in the seat, ready to send this person into the fiery pits of hell.

Cain was sitting there with a stupid (or at least it seemed to Rion, who was hot, bothered, and now very,_ very _pissed off) grin on his face.

Rion was about to kill his subconscious mind for bringing Cain into his dream. Absolutely obliterate it, in fact.

"What are you doing here?" Rion didn't bother to disguise the murderous intent in his voice.

"You bear an uncanny resemblance to Rion," Ash observed.

"I get that a lot."

"I can imagine," Ash remarked coolly. He didn't seem none too happy about being interrupted, either.

"Geez. Who stuck a stick up your asses?" Cain grumbled.

/Oh, wait,/ Cain told Rion, telepathically communicating with him. (He was the only one Rion knew besides Lilia who was capable of this.) /I bet Ash was going stick one up yours... Hahahahaha./

/When we get home... You. Dead./

/...Technically, we _are_ home./

/Wait... This is stupid.../ Rion realized. "This is just a dream," he thought out loud.

Cain and Ash each sent him a blank look.

"So I could do something like run naked, and it wouldn't matter..."

This time, the looks he received were more on the alarmed side.

"By all means, go ahead," Ash encouraged, smirking.

Cain rolled his eyes. "...Subtlety just isn't your ballpark, is it?" he asked under his breath.

"What did you say?" Ash demanded.

Rion stared at the two of them. He supposed they weren't...going to get along, then. _Oh, well._

"I'll tell you what, Rion." Cain hunched over and put on what Rion had secretly dubbed his "I'm-going-to-be-shrewd-with-this-bet" look. "When you wake up, I'll tell you if the dream was real. Then you have to play Candy Land with Rainheart –"

"No way in hell –"

Rainheart wasn't the best sport in the world, yet he always managed to con Cain into playing with him. Conning typically involved whining relentlessly. And he cheated, too. The saddest thing was that Candy Land wasn't the only game they had dug up from the old apartment. (Cain claimed that the games were so aged, they proved that the place was "an ancient piece of crap.")

"You have to play Candy Land with Rainheart," Cain repeated, with a satisfied grin on his face. "And if you win, I'll..."

"You'll do it, no question."

/Okay, now if you don't mind... It's time to get your ass up./

Rion looked over at Ash.

And he woke up.

/-/

Sunlight filtered in through the window, painting the bleach white sheets with its rays. It was so bright that he quickly shut his eyes.

_Mrrrmm..._

He immediately felt foolish for having such a dream, even if it couldn't be controlled.

"Rion..."

"Mmm?" He wanted to tell Cain to let him sleep a little bit longer, but he was too tired to say anything.

"Heh, the dream was real."

"What?!"

Well, at least he was awake now.


	3. Disorderly Conduct

Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: A brief Candy Land reference again. (Please don't kill me.) Implied bad stuff. Boys kissing, too. (Edit: And I realized I forgot to say this, but a little more than kissing.) Mwahaha. If this isn't your bag, hit "back." And sorry for the long delay in updating... I know I'm evil. Oh, and I have to credit fanart for some ideas, too. For the ear piercing thing: http: homepage3 . nifty . com / galepo /. And for the black nail polish: http: sexualdeviate . fc2web . com / hira . html. Sorry for the weird spacing. I know it's wonky. (Thanks to SakuraBubbles for pointing out the first fanart similarity. :D My memory suxxors.)

Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (No shaved cats in this chapter... Hopefully, next one. :D), Caeli Et Terra (It doesn't exist in the future – They said it was because it's a really old apartment. And nipples? They're fun. XD), and ShadowSilence (I love your reviews! Seriously, I really do. They're so long and stuff. And I'm a little torn, too, about what Rion's going to do with two boys who want him... Gwahaha.)

Chapter Three – Disorderly Conduct

Cain had stopped eating as much as he used to. Rion knew that he couldn't afford to, with such slender body already. Of course, he knew this because they had a similar build, not because he would suddenly catch himself looking or anything. That curve in his hip, those slim legs, that taut stomach, that...face... Right.

Rion had his own speculations on why Cain had been only picking at his food lately. They could only rely on money coming from Rita now, because Cain had quit for reasons that he wouldn't exactly specify. This naturally pissed Rita off to no end, and she demanded a full explanation.

Which she, along with everyone else, never received.

They had been fighting more than usual, and their bickering sessions had escalated into all out yelling matches.

"Cain, what the fuck is your problem?! You're practically killing yourse –"

"Leave me alone! I already told you I'm fine!"

Rion's attention, however, was sharply riveted to the stack of cards that Rainheart's fingers were picking through.

"You just cheated. I saw you." _I can't believe I fell for that deal with Cain._

"Did not." Rainheart stubbornly suck out his lip.

Snatching the card from him, Rion turned it over, eyes widening in disbelief. "Plumpy?!" He shot a venomous glare in Rainheart's direction. "You tried to send me back to _Plumpy_?!"

Lilia stifled a giggle with the corner of a blanket and let the kitten snuggle up against her. Though night was not even close to falling, she was bundled up and lying comfortably on the bed. It was now autumn, but Lilia dressed as if it were winter, in heavy blankets and a knit cap. She said it was because she was cold, but really, Rion knew that her beautiful hair had begun to fall out, and she was ashamed of it. Her eyes had lost their bright luster, she was sickly pale, and she was just so...weak. Even when she tried to keep busy, Rion could see that she was struggling.

So was _he_ – Everyday, having to deal with the inevitable this way.

/-/

Cain sat alone at the table, a hand against the side of his face, which Rion could see was scarlet.

"Cain?" he ventured quietly, reaching out to touch his hand. "Are you –"

He flinched away. "I'm okay. She hit me... So what?"

"Really?" An eyebrow arched in disbelief.

"Shut up." Sliding down in his chair, he flung an arm over his head. "All of us used to always fight like that. That's not what bothers me. I called her a whore... For that, I probably _deserved_ it," Cain mumbled. "It's just...we never fought this much before."

There was a moment of silence, in which Rion took the opportunity to study the huge red mark on the side of his face. "That's not looking very good..." _But your eyes are. So is the rest of your face... Damnit, I'm doing it again._ "Oh! I forgot to tell you..." It was such good news, he almost smiled. "I got a job today."

"What?!" Cain spun around. "Rion, you asshole!" he yelled, laughing. "If you had told me that, we wouldn't have gotten in a fight in the first place!"

"I got a job, and you just called me an asshole!" He feigned indignation, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hmph."

"Okay, okay... Where is it?"

"The dry cleaners." He stared at Cain, readying himself for retaliation.

Cain grinned. "I can't picture you folding laundry. Sorry." Humming, he closed his eyes, the perfect picture of concentration. "Nope. Sorry, still can't picture it. Couldn't you have gotten a sexier job, like...bartending?"

"Cain!" He gaped and didn't risk speaking further for a few seconds, as there was a chance he might stammer. "Wait..." he realized. "You would've still gotten in a fight with Rita, even if I _had_ told you."

"And why is that?" he demanded non-seriously. The news had evidently put him a better mood.

Too bad he had to wreck that.

"I don't think Rita's doing that so you can starve yourself, Cain." Pausing, he gripped the back of the chair. "What...happened?"

Their eyes met for the briefest of moments. There was something Cain wasn't saying that Rion could still see, something that couldn't be described in words...a kind of unapproachable sadness.

"I think if I wanted your help, I would've asked it for it, _Rion_," he snapped.

Rion couldn't help it – He winced. "There's no reason for you to be angry with me, _Cain_," he mimicked angrily. Quite frankly, Cain was making him upset when he was sure he had done nothing wrong to him.

/I'm not angry with you. I'm angry at...myself./

/Why?/

/He was...looking at me./ Cain shifted uneasily, picking at his nails. /My boss was saying things. It's so stupid... I don't even want to tell you. I know it pisses Rita off, but I'm just...uncomfortable –/

"Then it shouldn't matter." Rion gently slipped his hand into Cain's. "She's probably just used to people looking at her that way..."

/I know, but I feel like – like all anyone ever wants is... No one gives a shit. It's all the same, everywhere you go./

"...Are you all right?"

They glanced up to see Lilia leaning against the doorway. She looked exhausted and haphazardly put together, but her affection for them both outweighed the effects of the illness.

"I'm okay," Cain answered, in a much too normal voice.

Apparently aware of this, Lilia headed for the refrigerator. "So, how many ice cubes will that be?"

"Heh."

/-/

Normally, Rion would have locked the door, but he knew that Cain didn't have a key. It was kind of crazy when he stopped to think about it. The apartment was stockpiled with liquor, courtesy of Rita, but Cain seemed to feel like he could only get drunk elsewhere.

_If anything's happened to him..._

He was almost angry. Almost. That stupid idiot could be getting the shit beat out of him, and it was all because he didn't have sense enough to refrain from wandering around the streets intoxicated. In his own strange form of protest, he was trying to get to sleep, to tell himself that he didn't really care.

It wasn't working too well.

He scratched an itch restlessly, spread out on top of the bed in navy boxers and a t-shirt. The cool autumn air fluttered the sheets around his body as he gazed at the patterns of light against the ceiling. The light – from outside – cast a green illumination across the room.

_His eyes..._

It was useless. He couldn't stop thinking about him. Just when he thought he was about to go insane from worry, he heard the door click open and jumped up in bed. Though his instincts told him it was Cain, he could never be too sure.

"Cain?" he called out softly, holding his arm out in a defensive position.

When he didn't get a response, he peered in the darkness, straining to see –

"Ow!"

A body fell heavily on top of Rion, crushing him into the mattress. His initial reaction was to panic and let out a few muffled protests, but once he realized that it _was_ Cain by the light from the window, his smell, and his _feel_, he calmed down considerably. And Cain wasn't so heavy, after all... It was the force of him crashing down on him that he first felt.

"How the hell did you manage to get home?" he breathed, not even bothering to request that Cain roll over.

"Dunno," Cain murmured in his ear. "You tell me..."

Rion flinched at the strong scent of alcohol assaulting his nostrils and replied with what he thought Cain could have figured out, had he not been incredibly drunk. "If I knew, I wouldn't be asking."

Cain giggled hoarsely. "Yeah... Rion?"

"Hn?" _Please don't... Don't say or do anything you'll regret._

"Rita... Doesn't she...get it?" He let out a short, miserable laugh. "Even after..."

_After what?_ "Cain..." His arms came up and pulled Cain closer. Meshing their bodies together, he dipped his fingertips in the valleys and over the ridges of Cain's back. He always considered himself so terrible in situations like this...never knowing what to say.

Things happened. No one lived in a perfect world, least of all him, and he was used to loss.

Cain crawled off of him, settling next to him so that their elbows brushed together. For a few minutes, neither of them said anything. Rion considered going to sleep... Maybe Cain was finally doing the same.

"I didn't want it," he suddenly broke the silence.

Confused, Rion stared at his face, looking for some answer and not finding it in his tired, drunken eyes. "The alcohol? Shouldn't have drank it, then."

"Didn't want him."

Rion's stomach flopped sickeningly. "Cain..." he began weakly. "Cain, nothing...happened tonight, right?" _I'll...kill..._

"No. I'd kick ass before that..."

The word "ass" was so slurred that it sounded like "Ash," and under different circumstances, Rion would have found that funny. It was painfully obvious that Cain disliked...no, _strongly_ disliked Ash.

He could have sighed in relief, though. _Thank god, but...then..._ "Then...?"

"Him... I can't..." His hands twisted in the sheets.

"It's...okay," Rion forced out. "You don't have to."

Faltering breaths. Eyes wide open, scared.

Sleep.

It seemed like it took hours to get Cain to go to sleep. Rion had never done so much coaxing in his entire life.

That night, sleep chose to abandon him instead.

/-/

Rita was home early today. It was almost like she did it on purpose. Rion could only hope, because anyone could see that Cain really needed her.

It was why he pretended to sleep, why he was listening in on their conversation with his back to the kitchen.

"Cain, we can't keep doing this. _You_ can't keep doing this."

"Neither can you... How can you even do this after to yourself after...? Are you blind or something?"

"I'm _not_ blind." Her voice was trembling terribly, and Rion imagined that she must be doing the same. "That's the thing... If you had to go do that, so could I –"

"Rita... You don't actually blame yourself for that, do you?"

She didn't answer, striking up a pang of sympathy in Rion.

"You do... Why do you keep punishing yourself every – single – fucking – night?" He was breaking.

Rion didn't have to see his face to know that.

"Stop it... Stop it! I was supposed to protect you. You were... God, you were only a child."

"I'm not a child anymore!" he protested quietly. "It wasn't your job to protect me, Rita. If you hadn't walked in that day, it would've gone on forever... Forever."

"Cain..."

"Promise me. Please. Promise me you'll quit doing this to yourself."

"I... I promise."

Rion couldn't help it – He shifted to catch a glimpse of them embracing.

/-/

The smell of nail polish stung his nose.

_Cain._

Struggling to open his eyes, he discovered something else. _Damnit, it's cold. Wait..._ His clothes – well, all of them except for his undershorts – were missing. "Cain," he started to say, halting as he watched his breath puff out into the air like smoke. Snow would fall shortly... He blinked blearily, trusting Cain, despite the fact that he was nearly naked. "Where are my clothes?"

"Laundry day," Cain stated nonchalantly. "You _gave_ me your clothes, remember?"

"No..." He stretched, shivering slightly, and wrapped the sheets tighter around his body.

Glancing over at the table, he saw that Cain was painting his nails in his dark red boxers, his back to him.

"Should've –" Rion yawned. "– asked me when I was awake."

"The earlier we clean them, the less chance we have of getting caught outside here on our way to the laundry room."

Rion could hear the smirk in his voice and couldn't help but follow it with one of his own. The thought of sprinting through the apartment complex like this with Cain was intriguing, he had to admit.

"Breakfast?" he inquired, catching a whiff of what he thought might be...eggs?

"Eggs," Cain confirmed, as if reading his mind.

This information brought him out of bed – amazing, but then again, not so amazing when he considered how hungry he was.

With just a fleeting look in Rion's direction as he shuffled to the eggs on the stove, Cain declared, "My, my. You're looking regal."

Clutching the "robe" around himself, Rion replied with an "Mmf" and shoveled some eggs on a plate. When he sat down at the table across from Cain, he almost tripped over the chair, struck by the shiny, black slickness of Cain's nails. He said he did it to discourage biting them, but there certainly were aesthetic advantages.

Cain snickered sleepily at the sight. "Not a morning person?"

"Not an _early_ morning person," Rion corrected, digging his fork into the eggs – fried, how he liked them best.

He enjoyed the sound of Cain's voice, his laughter especially, but he could appreciate the silences between them, as well. Watching him was sometimes enough, and if Cain was rather intent on task – like now – he didn't even notice. The dim light shone in his hair, gleamed off his strikingly colored green eyes, outlined those soft lips. Well, Rion imagined that they were soft. He didn't really know – _Agh, what the hell am I thinking?_

"Rion?"

"Ah – Hm?"

"Do I have something on my face?" A slight grin. A raised eyebrow.

Rion inwardly groaned. _Shit._ "...No, I was just thinking that the dishes need done," he filled in. Pretty lamely, if he did say so himself. Abruptly, he pushed his chair out from under the table and walked casually towards the sink, like he had been planning to go to it all along.

The hot water warmed his chilly hands as he filled the sink. Good thing the dishes _needed_ cleaned, otherwise he wouldn't have a valid excuse. Gripping the bottle of bright yellow dish soap, Rion proceeded to squirt some into the steaming, cloudy water – then he almost let it slip out of his hands when an arm snaked around his chest.

"You left your plate at the table, _Rion_," Cain whispered teasingly in his ear.

Rion stiffened, trying to force himself to relax, but to no avail. Through the thin sheets, Cain's nipples rubbed against his back.

Rion had to bite his lip to restrain a moan.

"You wash; I'll dry." Cain grinned, grabbing a dishcloth before Rion even had a chance to respond.

Staring at the daunting pile of dishes – attempting to ignore Cain, who just couldn't be this seductive accidentally – he realized that he couldn't wash dishes and keep the sheets wrapped around his body at the same time.

"This morning, when I woke up...I really thought we should invest in a heavier blanket," Rion informed him, teeth chattering as he allowed the sheets to drop around his ankles. They warmed his feet up only slightly – The freezing linoleum was damning.

Cain laughed, catching his eye for a split-second. Then his gaze trailed lower. Back up again.

Rion blinked. _Am I imagining this?_

"Rainheart has like twenty, but they all smell." Cain's faint laughter dissipated in the cold morning air.

Rion only wrinkled his nose at the thought, silently scrubbing while admiring the rich sound of that laughter.

"So, how's the dry cleaning job?"

"It's good. The head guy leaves a lot, though," Rion answered, glad that Cain wasn't currently saying anything blush-worthy.

"Should give you a lot of time to...you know..." Cain waggled his eyebrows jokingly in exaggerated motions.

Scratch the idea of not "saying anything blush-worthy." Though, maybe he wouldn't have to worry about his face turning red when most of his blood was going elsewhere. _Not that that's any better. Aghh._

At any rate, words failed him, and the only thing that he could focus on was the spray nozzle. Slapping on the taps, he yanked out his savior and turned it on Cain.

/...Pervert...!/

Cain shrieked (in a masculine way, Rion noted – he had less fodder for poking at him) and jumped about five feet over, knocking into a counter by the refrigerator. "Goddamnit, Rion! Stoppp, aghh! I was _kidding_!"

When Rion mercilessly resisted relenting, Cain dove into his arms and wrested it out of his grip, sending them both toppling to the floor.

Too late, Rion discovered that their equal heights made...certain areas touch each other.

And he was half-hard.

_Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck!_ his brain shouted desperately. He couldn't move away, either, because Cain was pinning him down, fingers curled firmly around each wrist. Instead, he opted for completely ignoring the present situation. "It's not like the water was cold."

The lukewarm water in question that was dripping off Cain's chest and onto Rion was proof of this, as was the soaking waistband of Cain's undershorts. Unsurprisingly, Cain chose not to debate Rion's point, instead focusing on a more prominent issue.

"Rion," he breathed. "_Rion_. You're..."

He could only bite his lip and look away, studying the swirly patterns on the linoleum – but not really, when they were so blurred and faint, fading out behind the too-fast thudding beneath his ribs. "Are you going to let me go?"

Oh, how it hurt to say that. Everything was going to go to shit.

"Not if you don't want me to."

That definitely got his attention. Jerking his head back to look Cain in the eyes, he discovered that he was being serious, being completely honest.

"I don't want you to," he heard himself saying. It slipped out before he even thought about it – He could hardly believe either of them right now.

A smile slowly formed on Cain's face. "You've been driving me nuts for weeks, you know..."

Rion didn't know, but Cain seemed out to prove it, grinding against him in a fraction of a moment – and then abruptly halting.

"Unngh..." Rion groaned, arching off the floor, baring his throat. "Cain!" he gasped in disbelief.

"Hmm?" Cain smirked, not moving.

_I want..._ "Please..." Cupping Cain's face, he leaned up and pressed their lips together chastely, reveling in the softness of the mouth that he had longed for.

Cain's mouth parted, tongue darting out to trace the edge of Rion's bottom lip. Instinctively, Rion opened his mouth, letting out a little breathless gasp as Cain took the initiative by sliding his tongue over Rion's.

"Heh, your eyes are huge." Cain gently kissed the corner of his mouth.

"That felt...different but really good," Rion confessed, still giddy at the taste of Cain on his tongue.

Now it was Cain's turn to go wide-eyed. "That... That was your first kiss?" His voice cracked. "Like kiss _kiss_?!"

Embarrassed, Rion glanced away. "Ah... Yeah. Is that bad?"

"No." Cain shook his head fervently. "No, no... I just can't believe that no one has ever kissed _you_. How could they not?"

"Cain!" That didn't help the embarrassment much. He had never taken compliments well. "I did spend my teenage years asleep..."

"Shit, I'm going to hell for corrupting an innocent," Cain lamented mock-seriously.

Rion rolled his eyes. "You've corrupted no one." His mouth slipped into a playful smile, while his knee was rubbing itself against Cain in a most provocative manner. There was a chance of getting caught, but everyone was asleep, and he wanted this too badly to care.

Cain sucked in air. /Keep doing that, and I'm going to need a cold shower.../

/I like the first part./

"Smartass," Cain murmured, spreading Rion's thighs with needy, shaking hands.

"_You're_ calling _me_ tha...that... Ahhn..." He broke off at the insistent rocking force from Cain, which was pushing them together intimately.

Clutching a hip, Cain drove them together faster, harder...

/Want you.../ Rion mentally choked out. He could just picture what he must look like, cheeks flushed, arching wantonly like this.

"Need you..." Cain mimicked and smiled – falteringly, probably because it was too much of an effort to concentrate on that area of his body.

Rion's boxers were getting irritating, but he knew that it was far too soon to cross that line. _Oh, god..._ The thought of it granted him an extra shiver. Rion had no idea what to do, Cain most likely respected him enough not to push it at this time, and then...there was the issue of Birdman... _Don't. Think. About. That._

And then he really couldn't, _couldn't_ think of that when Cain was thrusting against him so sweetly, slick with sweat and water, moaning softly – his name here and there, mostly just sounds – Another kiss, those lips on is, tongue tickling the roof of his mouth... And it was just lovely enough that he couldn't – couldn't take it –

"Ah...!" Rion shuddered, going speechless as he was consumed by explosive, intense pleasure. _Feels so good... Nnnnh..._ He had never know something like _that_ in all his days of living.

A feeling of bonelessness seeped in. He sagged limply on the linoleum, sated but very, very sticky. And topped by a still very, very needy Cain.

He licked his lips, gazing up into Cain's half-lidded eyes. As much as he loved to see him taken in by such a high, this simply could not go on. Sucking on Cain's collarbone, he let his hands – which had previously been holding onto to Cain's shoulders like he was bound to them – drag down his spine. Then lower... Squeezing, kneading. Cain's ass was firm but round at the same time.

Rion thought that he was perfect in every way.

"Nghh..." Cain collapsed on him, easing into the comforting, light caresses Rion offered. Propping himself up on his elbows, he kissed Rion's ear wetly, nipping and tugging at his earring.

"Cain..."

They both rested there, panting, melded together, and Rion didn't want it to end. He almost groaned when the obvious lack of body heat brushed over his body.

"Just a second..." Cain heaved himself up and rummaged about the sink before returning with a clean washcloth.

It was only then that Rion really paid attention to the mess they had made. He was in a puddle, and his thighs – no, both of their thighs – were splattered with fluid. An odd kind of thrill took him over then, knowing that traces of Cain were left on himself.

Cain tenderly wiped Rion's skin clean, meeting his eyes silently.

"Thank you..." It wasn't enough to express how he completely felt, but it was enough.

There was an understanding between them.

"You should shower," Rion added. "I was the one who sprayed you."

"That sounds so erotic." Cain snickered, pulling Rion up with him so that they were both standing, even as he got a playful shove in response.

"I'm glad you did that...with the water, I mean. You look so cute pissed."

Rion's face reddened. Normally, he would have searched for words to counter with, but Cain was already walking down the hall to the bathroom.

He allowed himself a smile, but then... _Ash._ How could he have forgotten? And with the possibility of seeing him at any time... He tried to envision himself telling Ash, but it was all so ridiculous that he could have laughed. Strangely, no guilt crept in. It wasn't like he was _cheating_ on Ash, and, at least right now...

He was just too damn happy to feel guilty.


	4. Respite

Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: This chapter was going to be something else, but I felt the urge to stick Rion and Cain in a shower, so that takes up a good portion of this chapter. XD This chapter is like the calm before the storm.

Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (Ahem, I give you shaved cat.), Cvinceus (I think Rion and Lilia were more like brother and sister or very close friends in this, though.), Riku Aros (Oh, the slashiness indeed. - grin -), and Saiyajin Angela (You gave me hugs! That made me happy. :D).

Chapter Four – Respite

Rion's fingers stopped circling in the sand at the warm breath coursing tickling the back of his neck.

"Why is it always here?" he asked, glancing over at Ash as he sat down beside him on the edge of the sandbox.

His outline was dimmed through the fog. Always. There was always that heavy fog and eerie silence reverberating throughout this place.

When he didn't receive an answer, he began swirling his fingers in the sand again. There were things Ash didn't like talking about – He understood how that was, how some topics could strike up a familiar pang in his own chest.

Finally, "I was never allowed things like this as a child."

"She's dead." It was difficult to witness the drawn-out, suffering glaze that shrouded Ash's eyes. _So don't remember._

If only it were that easy.

"Regardless, she will always haunt me."

"That's not true," Rion found himself saying.

Ash's eyes narrowed, lips parting – Rion could almost read it as, "How would you know?"

"The things that have happened to me...don't bother me as much. I still get nightmares, but –"

_Mother...! In the refrigerator, clock in her mouth... Blood, blood... Blood underneath those fingernails and splattering still. The closet... He's in there, too... Hurts – Stop. Stopstopstop... "I command you to die!"_

A hand closed over his wrist.

Swallowing a cry, Rion gasped and jerked around to find his face inches away from Ash's. It was a mistake to even think of those nightmares. Even more so, it was a mistake to think that he was over what had happened to him.

"Every second here is hell," Ash icily reminded him. "Nothing will ever go away. _Nothing_."

Rion could only stare back, at first not trusting himself to say anything. He had always comforted those who wouldn't tell him what was really wrong. Cain, Lilia...

He knew, anyway.

Waves of guilt crashed over him. "I'm...selfish." He couldn't even meet his eyes. Also, he was unsure about Ash's intentions with them so close to each other.

"Merely reasonable." Ash chuckled quietly, brushing his thumb over Rion's hand. "Do they make your life worth living?"

"Yes." That was easy to answer.

Though Ash was intimately touching...his hand.

"Tell me about them."

"I..." Rion wet his lips, currently at a loss for words. "We walk home from work together. Rita and Cain work at a corner grocery store, and I work at the dry cleaners." It occurred to him that it was a random and perhaps stupid thing to say, but it was what was on his mind. "We just talk about things. It's nice...I guess. I never really had that before." He could feel his expression change at the thought of Cain and his quirks. "Every single day, Cain has to eat chocolate on the way." (And that was just _Cain_. He hadn't even gone into all the other odd things everyone else did.) "He smells like it, tastes like it even –"

"How is Lilia?" Ash interrupted curtly, shifting a little bit away from Rion.

Lost, Rion registered the miffed expression on Ash's face... _What...? I said... Shit._ He had slipped without even noticing it. "She's..." he trailed off, not able to really describe it, nor wanting to. "It's hard."

"You knew it was coming."

His voice wasn't harsh by any means, but Rion felt irrational anger rise up inside him – towards death in general, maybe. He didn't know or care. "That doesn't make it any less harder."

"Rion."

_You always say my name like that. Why?_

"Have I angered you?"

"Have _I_?" At the confused look flitting across Ash's face, Rion clarified, "With...Cain."

"I must say that I thought you had better taste," he retorted, smirking.

Rion could most definitely _feel_ his jaw dropping. "And that would be you?" He couldn't help but let some incredulous laughter escape, even though he was getting some peeved vibes from Ash that threatened death.

"Well, I certainly think so," Ash shot back indignantly.

"You..." He shook his head in disbelief. "You're never going to change."

Admittedly, he never wanted him to.

/-/

"You got up late," Cain observed.

Rion, curling an arm around his waist, peered over his shoulder to see what he was frying in the pan. Bacon. Even though it was one of Rion's favorite foods, he had his mind on something else.

_His voice sounded..._

Biting? Suspicious?

Rita, who met his eyes with a cup of coffee halfway to her lips, might have thought the same thing, for she raised her eyebrows in question.

"What's wrong?" Rion asked. "It's not like I have to go to work today."

"Nothing." He continued cooking the bacon, jabbing it almost viciously.

"In case you forgot, the meat's already dead," Rion muttered, no longer interested in holding him.

Rita's tired laughter startled them both. She ran a hand through her sleep-mussed hair, eying them with amusement. "Cain's _jealous_, Rion."

"Jealous?" Cain sputtered, almost dropping the spatula. "Why the hell would I be jealous?!" He glared at her, silently demanding an answer.

Rion straightened, suddenly feeling more than a little uncomfortable. "Did I...?"

"You said his name a few times," Rita replied, voice low, but Rion knew that Cain could hear her, too.

"It wasn't because..." he trailed off awkwardly, considering that Cain possibly thought he was having dreams of a sexual nature. "...something like that. It was just because I was visiting him."

"Still, that really..." Cain sighed and looked away. "I really don't like him."

"What's your main problem with Ash, anyway?" Too late, he realized how confrontational that sounded.

"I don't know... Maybe the fact that he won't stop touching my boyfriend?!" Cain snapped.

_Wait... Boyfriend?_

Rion stared at him blankly, interpreting the expression that quickly set in on his face as "Shit." His guess proved to be correct as one of Cain turned away.

"So you two are dating?" Rita mused. "I suppose I kind of figured that. It was a bit obvious, but you never really said anything publicly."

Rion had never considered them to be technically dating, but he...liked the way Cain said it. He even wanted him to say it again.

"Then again, the fold-out bed is quite squeaky –" Rita continued.

"Rita!" Cain interrupted heatedly.

Despite the embarrassment of the whole thing, Rion found humor in their arguing. But then he remembered... "Does Lilia know?"

"Oh, I don't know." Rita fumbled through a pack of cigarettes and lit one. "Lilia's not as innocent as you two think. Probably."

"If I find out that you've been whoring her out to your friends..." Cain grumbled under his breath. "And don't smoke in here."

"Yes, Mother," she quipped.

Silence.

"You know I didn't mean it like that, Cain."

"Okay, fine. Just...fuck it all."

"I'll give you some time to talk." She walked away from the table and out the front door, cigarette in tow.

Rion watched her go, knowing it would buy him some time to think of what to say. So far...he had nothing.

"So, are you pissed at me, because I'm such a possessive asshole?" Cain broke the silence, leaning up against the sink and focusing on something outside the window. Maybe it was nothing.

"No. I understand. But we only talk, and he _knows_ about you."

"Oh. I'm...sorry for being such a moron." He let out short, bitter laugh. "And I said..."

"Say it again," Rion murmured, surprising both himself and Cain, who was now facing him.

Rion looked up from the tile to find that his eyes were wide. He was frozen. It seemed like minutes went by, but in reality, it was most likely only a few seconds.

An awareness passed over Cain's face. He smiled.

Rion felt like all the bones in his body had liquefied.

"...Boyfriend."

Slowly, he walked over to the table, and bending down, kissed Rion's ear so softly that he could barely feel it. His skin prickled, and he moved his head to kiss him bac –

"Look, I finally did it!" Rainheart exclaimed, bounding into the kitchen.

If he thought there was anything peculiar about Rion's and Cain's closeness, he said nothing. He seemed to proud of...

"What the fuck did you do to my baby?!" Cain screamed, temporarily forgetting that Lilia was still sleeping.

Sleeves was missing a lot of his fur. Most of his fur, actually. He was even bald in some spots. What it looked like to Rion was that Rainheart had shaved him.

"Did you _shave_ him?" he asked in disbelief, trying to cover up the amusement in his tone and failing miserably.

"Yeah." Rainheart beamed.

"You little bastard!" Cain snatched Sleeves up from Rainheart's arms and was now examining the bewildered kitten from every angle. "How could you do this?! What... What are these?"

"Dollar signs!"

Rion couldn't take it anymore. He began to shake with suppressed laughter.

"Rion, how the fuck can you think this is funny?! This is a disgrace... A disgrace!"

"I...thought you would be happy..." Rainheart scrunched up his face like he was about to cry. "It took me forever just to find the right thing! You said he needed a haircut!"

"I was kidding! Kidding..." He shook his head in defeat and held out his hand. "What did you use?"

Rainheart meekly placed the object in Cain's hand. It was small, metal...

Cain's mouth dropped open. "Nose hair clippers."

/-/

Rita and Cain had gotten their own very patched-up coats at a thrift store, and as the weather became cooler, they had to return there for Rion and Lilia. "Cooler" was kind of a bit of an understatement. Rion knew that his ears were red from the harsh winds on their walks home as they traversed blocks and blocks of cracked pavement.

"You're going to get fat if you keep eating so much of that," Rita admonished, glancing over at Cain. "I guess it would be better than looking starved, though."

Cain "hmmph"ed through a mouthful of the chocolate bar that he had shoved, up to the wrapper, in his mouth. "Says you."

Rion brought his corduroy coat sleeve up to his lips to hide that he found this funny, but Cain noticed even this slight motion.

"What?" he asked curiously.

"I was just imagining you fat," Rion admitted.

"Oh, that's _just_ what I need." He playfully shoved Rion, who could've tackled him but instead opted for mimicking his move, remembering that they were in the presence of Rita.

Because most of the times that Rion tackled him, he had ulterior motives. Wrestling had been an activity that they'd engaged in as children, which had Cain told him, but it was no longer such an innocent exchange. All it took was a hand "accidentally" brushing up against somewhere that had nothing to do with wrestling. Other times, it was more direct from the start.

Cain would sometimes pin him and just study him quietly, taking him in. He remembered what he had once said to him, kidding, but Cain had replied seriously.

"_Are you looking for something?"_

"_No, I've already found it."_

He also liked to turn the tables on Cain, to make _him_ gasp and squirm...

"Look, it's Rainheart."

Cain's voice snapped him out of his reverie (thankfully before he felt an even greater desire to tackle him). His eyes followed where Cain was pointing, up into the murky gray sky, where he could make out a cloud that almost exactly resembled a pig, down to the ears and the curly tail.

"Looks more like a pig to me," Rita decided, echoing Rion's sentiments.

"That's the point."

He was definitely still pissed about Sleeves, from what Rion could see.

"Cain!" Rita yelled furiously, chasing after him as he smirked over his shoulder at her.

Rion could only smile to himself as he watched the two of them take off down the street. Such a change had come over him since he had started living with them. He was apt to be more serious by nature, but he was now able to laugh and, for the first time in so long, actually mean it.

Rion rounded a corner, now in sight of their apartment, which Cain and Rita had already dashed into. As he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, he wondered if it would kill him to lose this.

/-/

Rion stilled, fingers tangled in his soaked hair. He had just been rinsing out conditioner when he heard the click of the bathroom door.

"Sorry, I have to take a piss," came Cain's voice on the other side of the shower curtain. "Really badly," he added. "You take forever to take a shower."

"I know." His eyes slid shut as water droplets beat on his face and coursed down his body in little streams. It had been a long time already, and he was done bathing, so he groped for the knob to turn off the water.

The sound of the sink taps running and then the door opening and shutting reached his ears, so Rion deemed it safe to reach outside the shower for a tower. Fingers blindly searching, he couldn't find it. _I thought I put it here..._ He went to poke his head out, confused about where –

Something firmly grasped his wrist and tugged him forward.

"Ah!"

His face was buried in warm, soft fabric that smelled like clean laundry and chocolate...

_Cain...? Oh, I'm going to kill him._

He swung his head up, dripping wet, and encountered Cain, who had quite the mischievous grin on his face.

"I've got your towel, _Rion_," he taunted, waving it above his head.

Rion could feel his face starting to glow with an unearthly heat, but not about to be outdone by Cain, he made a swipe for the towel. "You're going to get a lot more if you don't give it back."

They hadn't seen each other completely naked yet, except for when they were children – but Rion couldn't remember that, anyway. The main thing on his mind now was that he was absolutely bare. In front of Cain.

"I could run away with it, and you couldn't chase me," Cain countered. "Unless you're okay with everyone seeing you...like that." He raised an eyebrow, silently inviting a challenge. Then his gaze traveled lower and lower, finally resting on the area right between Rion's legs. "I guess _I_ have no problem with it."

"I'm not surprised." Rion took this opportunity to take another lunge at the towel. Unfortunately, the water that had been dripping off his body had accumulated in a puddle beneath his feet. He slipped on the slick tile, set up to smack the back of his skull on the shower floor. Clenching his eyes, he waited for the throbbing pain that was sure to ensue, but he was... Somehow, Cain had managed to catch him in a split-second before that could happen. One of his hands was splayed out against Rion's back, propping him up. The other was...tightly molded to his ass.

Cain was frozen in place, looking utterly stunned.

"You planned this on purpose...didn't you?" Rion attempted – and failed – to stifle a moan as Cain recovered from his momentary surprise and began kneading him gently.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it would work out _this_ well."

"Come in here..." Rion urged. Having regained the use of his own legs, he pulled him into the shower without meeting much resistance.

They crumpled to the floor together, Rion with his back skidding down the damp wall. Cain placed his palms flat beside either side of Rion's face and stared into his eyes seriously. The air was thick with tension, and the energy between them was – in Rion's mind – nearly crackling. Just when Rion wasn't sure if he could take it any longer, Cain leaned in and wetly traced the outer rim of his ear with the tip of his tongue until he got to the earring at the bottom. Clenching it between his teeth, he pulled it back ever so lightly.

One of Rion's weak points. Though, to be honest, he had discovered that he had a few more.

Instantly, he fisted a hand in Cain's shirt and began kissing him desperately with a kind of gentle fierceness that he could only ever picture Cain being capable of, somehow. Actually, he could never picture doing _this_ with anyone else, either. No, not like this at all.

"Your clothes... They're getting wet," he mumbled breathlessly against Cain's lips. His fingers crept below the damp fabric, teasing Cain's flesh with tiny circles before brushing up against his nipples.

"Ahn..." Cain gripped him tighter, sucking on his collarbone.

Seeing that he was occupied, Rion assisted in yanking the shirt over his head. In a clash of hips, his bare erection rubbed against the thin material of Cain's pants. They were both hard... Rion panted, fumbling for the button at Cain's waist.

/Rion.../

Rion gazed up at Cain questioningly as his pants popped open.

"I don't want you to see, because...I'm ugly..." he stammered, shielding the area where his undershorts were tenting.

_What?_ "What are you talking about?" He was so lost that he didn't even know where to begin. Cain had always been timid about letting others see his body, but he had been less so with Rion, and Rion had even thought that he'd gotten better about it. "Cain..."

""I know it's true. I've heard it so many times." He averted his eyes.

"But..." Rion could hear the confusion in his own voice. "You're..." He took in the sight of him lying there, cheeks flushed, soft lips parted. His vivid eyes, the niche at his waist, and the smooth expanse of his chest...

"Rion." His arms shook. He could only stare at Rion, seemingly stunned, unable to pull the rest of his clothing off.

No words needed to be exchanged between them. Rion knew that Cain understood what he couldn't say.

He guided his hands, and they did it together – falteringly, but at last, the clothing slipped over Cain's feet.

Rion's eyes passed over him leisurely, eliciting some nervous fidgeting from Cain. He reached out for him but then waited, hand hovering.

"It's okay," Cain assured him quietly.

He gave a slight nod, running his fingertips up and down his length, brushing his thumb over the head.

Cain jerked, arching up against him. "Ngh..." He caressed Rion's skin, hands gliding smoothly over shoulder blades, and pressed kisses up his neck. "Rion..." /Please./

Rion stroked him faster, feeling himself get even harder at Cain's breathy pants and moans.

_Oh, god. I want..._

This was exquisite. He could lose himself in this.

In him.

"Faster..."

Tasting him, touching him...

"Ahn!"

Cain sagged beneath him, drawing in great amounts of air, nuzzling him softly.

He was beautiful.

And to prove it to him, Rion kissed the corner of his mouth – Cain was currently too out of breath to do otherwise, but sometimes Rion liked to give him small, chaste kisses instead. He brought his fingers, covered in a moist stickiness, to his lips and licked it up with a dart of his tongue. It tasted...strange. Not wholly bad, but strange.

"Rion, you..." Cain smirked slyly and, in one smooth motion, pinned him. "I'm not just going to leave you to fend for yourself."

Caught by surprise, Rion gaped up at him. _Oh._ It wasn't that he forgot that he was still in need – it was more like he was amazed at Cain's ability to even catch him off guard after something that tiring.

Cain trailed kisses down his chest and stomach, pausing to delve his tongue into Rion's navel. Hot breath skimmed over his arousal, and he couldn't help but squirm impatiently as his hips were lightly massaged. "Cain –"

He swallowed the rest of his words when Cain swirled his tongue around the tip, smiling up at him playfully. All he could do was throw back his head and, for once, not think about anything. Except for how Cain's mouth was hot and tight and how his delicate lips were enveloping him –

Air came quickly now. His breathing was shallow.

He distantly heard himself moan, not really caring to withhold the sounds he made, no matter how loud they might be or who might hear them. All the while, Cain was mapping out his body, fingers skating, pressing, squeezing. It was difficult for him to even lift his head off the ground at this point, but Rion wanted to see...

Cain had evidently wanted to watch, too. He studied him through heavy-lidded green eyes, speeding up the movements of his mouth and tongue until it was _unbearable_ –

/Cain.../ Rion shook as he came, holing onto Cain's shoulders with an unsteady grip.

They were silent. Rion's eyes fell on Cain, who was resting a cheek on his thigh. He tenderly ran his fingers through his hair, leaned down, and brushed his lips over his temple. Their mouths met slowly, almost tiredly, but Rion wasn't entirely exhausted yet.

_I never...want to stop touching him._

"Rion?"

"Hn?" He looked to him curiously.

Cain pressed his lips to his palm, and Rion could _feel_ the smirk he was hiding against the skin. "I think you're going to have to take another shower."


	5. The First and Last Snow

Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: It will snow again, but it's the "last snow" in another way. I'm evil, and I will get eviler. Don't kill me yet! At least not until I finish this fic, which I think is nearing its close. But I'm never sure of things like that. There will probably be one or two more chapters.

Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (If he could only get a Chia pet... Then when Rainheart got a hold of scissors, it would maybe grow back faster.), Albel's Fate (Oh my god, I've been dying for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time! It looks so awesome. I played the first one, and it rocked. So when I heard about a new one, I really wanted it. I freaked out over magazine articles about it... My enthusiasm was scary. Sadly, they kept pushing the release date back, and now I'm broke, but it's out. –crosses fingers– Christmas! Oh, and I thought about what you said about Ash...and I agree. So this chapter, I... Whoops, don't want to give it away. XD), Minako (How Lilia and Rion can communicate telepathically – and how Cain and Rion can – is kind of the same idea as how Rion can communicate to Ash through dreams. It's alluded to in this chapter.), batremix (I think I know who your friend is...and she's very awesome. XD Yep, Birdman will be showing up next chapter. Ash does have a big head! And skinny little chicken legs. Also, Cain really believed what he said about himself being ugly, and it'll be explained next chapter. There's a reason why he dislikes cigarettes so much as well.), DG-sama (That'd be cool if you made fanart! Searching for Galerians fanart is one of my hobbies, but it's hard to find. Such a cool game should be more popular, I tell you.), and The-Dark's-Familiar (LOL, the "Nalc your butt" part made me laugh. I want to say that to people now. They still have their powers, but they haven't had to use them really. Next chapter, they definitely will. Oh, and this, except for the parts with Ash, take place in the real world. The Galerians were brought back to life in the same way that Rion was, only it was easier for Dorothy to accomplish than it was for Lilia to.).

Chapter Five – The First and Last Snow

Almost tripping over his own feet in his haste, Rion made his way through the playground. It was almost completely quiet, but he got the sense that someone was nearby...

_Ash... Where is he?_

He sent glances in every direction, but he could see no one. Lost and a little confused, he halted next to the nearest thing he saw – a set of monkey bars. "Ash...?" Well, this had never happened before.

"Actually, my name is Cain."

Rion whirled around to see Cain leaning casually against the base of the bars, as if he had been there all along. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"And why is that?" Cain raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Because you don't like Ash."

"Heh. That's definitely true." He peered out past Rion. "Where is he, anyway?"

Rion look out in the direction Cain was, but he couldn't make out Ash through the fog –

"Aggh!" Cain screamed. "What the fuck?!"

_Cain!_ Rion jerked his head around immediately, thinking that something that something terrible had befallen Cain. "...Ash?"

"He grabbed my ass!" Cain protested, reddening and backing away from Ash.

"Don't be ridiculous. _You_?" Ash scoffed. "I obviously had no such intentions."

"It didn't feel accidental to _me_," Cain shot back.

Clearly miffed, Ash replied, "From behind, you looked like Rion."

_What...?_ Rion waited for Cain's reaction. He could envision it already.

"You said you didn't mean to!" Cain spat. "Liar!"

"What are your exact reasons for being here?" Ash demanded, changing the subject.

"Uh... Rion's going through a tough time, no shit. I didn't consciously project myself here."

"Pardon me for not being more informed. It's somewhat difficult when you're trapped in a _digital reality_."

Neither noticed Rion's sigh. _I knew this was going to happen..._

"Wait, you still haven't answered why you grabbed my ass!" Cain reminded Ash.

"I told you," he calmly stated in response.

"Oh, yeah, that you really meant to grab _Rion's_ ass," Cain started to rant. "That makes me feel so much better. Rion, how can you even deal with this perver – Rion?"

Rion was walking away from both of them.

"Rion!" they called at the same time.

He didn't even look up as they caught up to him. "You guys should work a few things out."

Before Rion had a chance to react, he was gripped by his shoulder and pulled into a fierce kiss.

/Cain!/ he objected, though the urge to return the kiss was overpowering, and he couldn't get enough of Cain's taste. /Ash is _right here_!/

/So?/

He could feel the smirk against his lips and crossly pushed Cain away in return. "Ash..." he gasped out, trying to regain his breath while glaring at Cain. "Sorry."

Rion expected Ash to look uncomfortable, jealous, or upset but not to – grab him and kiss him?!

"Mmpf!" Rion placed his palms flat on Ash's chest, intending to shove him away, but he forgot to do just that. He had never kissed Ash in exactly _this_ manner, tongue sliding over his, and he had to admit...he liked it.

"Hey!" Cain interrupted, causing Rion to remember and thrust Ash away from him. "Asshole, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Not wholly innocent, Rion took a few steps back and guiltily watched them both, sensing a fight about to begin. He opened his mouth, about to say _something_ to break this tension, but Ash beat him to it.

"If you're going to do that here, so can I," he coolly informed Cain. "This is my territory."

So much for breaking the tension.

Cain bristled with indignation. "You can't just do whatever you want to anyone just because they're here!"

Rion stared at them blankly. When he was in school, he remembered how he would overhear some girls getting excited about boys pursuing them and fighting for them. He couldn't say that he shared their enthusiasm.

"I highly doubt that _Rion_ minded what I did."

Cain glanced over in Rion's direction, awaiting an answer. Hopefully negative.

"Ah... Well...I..." _Shit._ There was too much pressure to say anything that made much sense.

"Heh. He's probably a sucky kisser."

"Excuse me?" Ash glowered. "I have difficulties believing that you could do any better."

Standing stubbornly with a hand on one hip, Cain challenged, "I have difficulties believing that you could prove it."

Rion stood absolutely still, expecting another kiss from Ash...but was taken aback when he yanked _Cain_ by the front of his shirt and captured his mouth instead. A hand behind Cain's head prevented him from simply turning his face away. His eyes were wide-open, shock etched into every bit of his expression. Yet...after a minute, his eyes slid shut, and Rion could see him returning the kiss.

As if Rion wasn't flushed enough from recent events, observing them was quite arousing. After all, Cain and Ash were both aggressive kissers – he knew this from being on the receiving end of their affections.

Ash broke off the kiss, chuckling. "I do believe that you said I couldn't do anything to anyone here. However, I just did."

"You're such a jerk..." Cain breathlessly accused, having broken off the kiss. "I don't recall asking for that."

"There was no need for you to." Ash smirked. "You obviously wanted it, or you would never have reciprocated."

"I... I can't just _not_ to anything!" Cain huffed.

"Ah, yes. I'm sure."

"I can't believe you did that. And right in front of Rion –"

"I didn't mind anything," Rion admitted, feeling his face heat up even further.

Ash smiled. "Perhaps we could..."

"Pervert." Cain appeared to be on the brink of twitching in annoyance. "I want to leave now."

Rion couldn't keep back some laughter, much to the surprise of Ash and Cain. "You two are..." Words failed him.

Cain began dragging him away by his arm, repeating, "Must wake up. Must wake up."

"Do visit again, Rion," Ash told them from behind. "Oh, and Cain, your presence was for once appreciated."

Cain only muttered incoherent things.

/-/

"Lilia..." Rion gently shook her. Hunched over and shivering, he edged closer to the warm blanket covering her body.

"Mmm..." Her tired eyes lit up with recognition as she saw that it was him, and a smile slowly formed. "Good morning," she mumbled sleepily. "Do you want to get in? It's so cold..."

He nodded mutely and crawled in, not caring that he was only wearing boxers and a t-shirt. Brushing some hair out her eyes with his fingertips, he whispered, "It snowed."

Instantly, she leaped out of bed, throwing the blankets aside, and crept to the window to watch the snow drift outside the glass.

It was early enough in the morning to be between dark and light. The soft breathing of Rita in the bunk above him reached his ears as she slept, and even more noticeable was the louder, grating snoring of Rainheart. Cain had woken him up in the first place, his intentions being to finally show Lilia the snow that she had daily been hoping for.

"It's beautiful," he commented. It was that hard-to-place, distant stare reflecting off the glass that drew him out of the inviting bed to wrap his arms around her waist. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, it's just nice to see this again."

Rion winced at the implications in that one statement. When he saw her standing there in just a plain white slip, he saw past the weariness, the thinning hair, the way Lilia's eyes seemed to store everything away as if it were the last time she would ever see it.

"Aren't you guys cold?" Cain asked from the doorway. He was fully dressed and appeared to be alarmed at their lack of clothing in such cold conditions.

Lilia didn't answer, but Rion could feel her shivering against his chest.

"Lilia? You shaking..."

"Okay, I'm _making_ you wear clothes, Lilia," Cain decided, rummaging through drawers to find said items.

"I'm fine," she assured them, but she sounded relieved.

Lilia was heavy in Rion's arms as he carried her back to the bed. He helped Cain tug pants up Lilia's legs and pull a sweatshirt over the slip she was wearing. The whole time, her limbs were completely limp.

"Lilia?" Worried, he reached for her hand.

"I'm fine," she repeated, but there was a tremble in her voice. Whether it was from the cold or something else, Rion didn't know.

"God, Lilia, you're freezing," Cain whispered in the darkness.

He shifted closer to her, rearranging the blanket, and Rion followed suit. Over Lilia's head, they exchanged concerned glances. She was shuddering even more violently, despite their body heat and the added clothing.

"I'm so glad to have met you," she breathed, eyes closing.

"Lilia... You're..." Rion stammered, fear causing his stomach clench. Dread was by now choking him.

"Oh, no, I only feel tired." She gave a small laugh. "We should all get to sleep. I don't feel as cold anymore..."

Rion realized that, in fact, she had stopped shivering altogether. He sighed in relief as the stranglehold that had seized his entire body gradually subsided.

Surrounded by warmth, he felt him fade away from consciousness.

/-/

"Rion... Rion, wake up..." a voice urged. "Something's..."

Rion shivered and cracked open an eye. For some reason, a chill seeped into his bones, so unlike the warmth he had felt when first falling asleep. All he could see was blankets in the dimly lit room. It was still morning... He must not have slept very long, maybe only an hour.

"Something's wrong with Lilia..." Cain's voice came again, choked and desperate.

That was all it took. Rion was wide awake in an instant, kneeling in a sea of blankets. His fingers shakingly reached out for her frozen flesh, searching for a pulse on her wrist.

_She's so cold... No, no, please –_

"Rion, she... She won't move. I tried waking her up, but –" He bit his lip and repeated in a small, frightened whisper, "...She won't move." His eyes were wide, gauging Rion's reaction, looking to Lilia and back to Rion again.

Rion stared into her still, calm face, thin and furnished with blue lips. Her chest wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing.

She would never breathe again.

"No, she isn't..." His eyes were stinging with the knowledge of what he had known from the moment he saw her lying there but had refused to accept.

She would never laugh again in that way only she did. Or smile at him or say his name. Or ask about the snow.

_"When do you think it will snow? I want to see it..."_

Even she had known.

His fingernails dug into his palms as he realized numbly that his face was streaked with tears. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried.

"Rita...! Rita..." Rion heard Cain call quietly. His voice sounded muffled, or like it was an echo blocks away.

He heard them both faintly now – Cain and Rita talking – hushed, stunned. Cain had gotten Rita to wake up and come down from the top bunk. He barely registered any of it, only acknowledging them when he felt hands trying to guide him away. But he was so fixated on her face that he sat solidly unaffected, as stiff as Lilia's arm when he attempted to pick it up.

"Rion, she's...gone," Rita murmured hoarsely. "Come here."

"No," he whispered, clinging to her lifeless body. "No... Not yet. I...think we should wait..." Suddenly, he was struck by a thought and scrambled to get out of bed. "If we call the hospital –"

Rita caught him in her arms, preventing him from going any farther.

"Let me go! We've got to call –"

"Rion..."

He cringed at her pitying tone, struggling to get out of her firm grip. Past her, he saw Cain, who was watching with an enduringly stunned expression his face. He was in shock, his whole body quivering.

"Lilia's not coming back, Rion." Rita held him close, rubbing his back gently. "There's nothing we can do..."

Overwhelmed by nausea, he almost sank to the floor. "St...op... You're lying!" he shouted angrily. But as he stared up into her sympathetic eyes, he knew that she wasn't. He knew that _he_ was one lying. He had gone from denial to acceptance and then repeated the cycle. _How many times is this going to happen?_

_Lilia's...gone._ He couldn't even bring himself to so much as think the word "dead."

It was the final blow – the one that cleanly cut his resolve to not accept this. Clawing at Rita's nightshirt, he buried his face in the fabric and sobbed brokenly.

"Oh, Rion." She cupped the back of his head and smoothed his hair. "I am so sorry."

/-/

"Rion, c'mon. You're going to be late for work..." Cain shook him, and when that didn't help any, he peeled off the covers.

Rion moaned despairingly and wrenched them back but not before catching sight of Cain completely ready for work in his corner store apron. "Go without me."

"Rita already left. Rion..."

Rion could hear him hear him licking his lips, pausing.

"It's been two weeks since..."

"I don't care," he mumbled in response.

"I don't want to go, either," Cain continued quietly, fingers creeping underneath the blankets. "I just want to stay here...but if we don't go to work, we'll starve."

"We don't eat much now as it is, except for Rainheart."

There was silence, and Rion knew that he was contemplating the facts. After the funeral especially, he had been too weak to do anything but cry and lie in bed. Even in his distress, he didn't see Ash. Their psychic connection was strong, but if he didn't want to see him, it couldn't be made possible. Ash hadn't known Lilia like he had, and he only wanted to be around people who felt her absence as he did.

He couldn't sleep, and food had lost its value to him. Rainheart, however, was the exact opposite from everyone else – he slept and ate more than usual.

It was strange how things had gotten worse for him after the funeral. But when he thought about it...maybe not so much. It was then that the finality of her death tore into him.

_The sky was crowded with clouds, letting no sunlight seep through that day. He stood – they all did – by the burial site in the cemetery._

_"I've never been to a cemetery before," Cain commented listlessly. "So much death...and I've never been here."_

_Rion started shaking uncontrollably, eyes locked onto the dirt. It was on top of her... He would never see her again... She was suffocating!_

"_Rion, what –?" Cain grabbed his arm as he started to collapse toward the grave. "What are you doing?"_

_Rion sank to his knees. "The dirt won't let her breathe."_

_Rita looked away, as if offering him some privacy, and ushered Rainheart closer to her._

"_Rion..." Cain reached down for his hand. "Hold my hand...please."_

"_I...know it makes no sense, but that's how I feel." The tears were splashing in the dirt. "Holding my hand isn't going to make me any less crazy."_

"_For me."_

_Through his watery vision, Rion met Cain's eyes. They were always so telling._

_He clasped his hand and didn't let go of it until they returned home._

"I know you miss her. I miss her, too! But Rion, what do you think she'd wan –"

Something came over Rion, and before he could stop himself, he tore the blankets off and sat up straight in bed, overcome with anger. "I don't even know if _anyone_ understands! Anyone! They may not be my memories, but I still see her as a little child! You... None of you ever even cried for her!" _I shouldn't have said that..._

"How...dare you..." Cain snarled. "How _fucking_ dare you! What gives you the right to judge anyone else's grief?!"

"_You're_ the one telling _me_ –" By now, Rion was up on his feet, curling his hands into fists.

"That's just reality!" Cain snapped. "I'm just so sorry that that doesn't fit in with your expectations! And there's a reason that I don't cry! I _can't_!"

Not knowing what else to say, Rion only murmured, "Really? Fuck you." It wasn't the most intelligent thing to say, but he was too pissed off to care.

"No!" Cain stepped forward and shoved him down on the bed until their faces were inches apart. "Fuck _you_, fuck you, fuck you! You have no idea! You got to forget _all_ of it, while the rest of us still suffer just remembering it!"

"It's not like you're the only one who had to suffer!" Rion shouted back. "And I wish that I _could_ remember!"

Oddly enough, Cain laughed, breathless from yelling. "Oh, really? I don't think you would. Maybe I should show you."

Rion's skin prickled. _This has to stop now this has to stop now don't_ his brain hummed over and over again. The way Cain was smirking... _Something is wrong._ Their arguing had gone too far...

But it was not an apology that came out of Rion's mouth. "Go ahead."

Damn his stubbornness.

Closing his eyes, Cain placed a hand on each side of Rion's head. Rion knew what he was doing – sending him images of what he had experienced, whether they be nightmares or reality.

Or a mixture of both.

"_You were crying again. Crying is a sign of weakness. It will not be tolerated."_

_The voice was cruel and commanding. Rion flinched. It was Dorothy's._

_He was running through a door, unable to control his own feet. The door was...the one leading to Dorothy's chamber._

_Screaming. So familiar. Like..._

"_Rainheart!" a child cried out._

_Rion gasped, but no sound came out of his mouth. He saw himself as a child running to the door. So...he was trapped inside Cain's body, seeing this through Cain's eyes._

"_Stop hurting him!" he watched himself scream. "Stop! Stop!"_

"_Rion, no! Don't!" he – Cain protested. "They're going to hurt you!"_

_The door slid open and shut with a whoosh. He and Cain were frozen in place._

_Rainheart was face down on the floor with his hands thrown over his head. They hadn't protected him. Blood was splattered everywhere in the room, soaking his clothing, matting his hair._

"_His head..." Cain choked out, tumbling to the floor. "What did you do to his head...?"_

"_What I did is none of your concern. It is the appropriate punishment. Do not question me!"_

"_That never happened to any of us! You..."_

_Cain's mouth dropped open at his disobedience to Dorothy. "Rion," he pleaded softly. "Rion, no..."_

"_He wouldn't stop!" she screamed terribly._

_There was screeching metal and, horrified, Rion watched his small, childish body get torn apart. Again and again._

"_Mother! Stop!" Cain flung himself over Rion's shredded body that was by now drenched in blood._

_Unbearable pain –_

Eyes snapping open, Rion thrashed underneath Cain, like he was underwater and needed to fight for oxygen.

"Rion...are you all right?" Cain released his wrists. He had held them so tightly that they were red and sore.

Rion could tell by his face that he was regretting what he had done.

"It...hurts." He was still remembering the pain that had seized up his body.

"I'm sorry." Cain sighed and situated himself on the edge of the bed, facing toward the window. "I took it too far."

Rion's chest heaved as he dragged in gulps of air. "It's... I'm sorry, too. I never should've said that."

"I felt the pain again with you. But I think the real reason for you being like this now... Did it surprise you?"

"Yes..." Rion thought back to –

_"His head... What did you do to his head...?"_

"What happened to him?"

Cain didn't reply at first, continuing to gaze out the window.

"Cain?" His lips trembled. The answer was too frightening a prospect. _Can this voice...really be my own?_

"Rainheart was a normal kid before that," Cain finally spoke. "He was very emotional, but he wasn't...like he is now. He was beat so severely that his brain was damaged. In other words, he became retarded," he clarified bluntly.

"I didn't know that..." Rion murmured, trying to defeat the lump in his throat.

"It's okay. I know that you wouldn't have said that if you had known," Cain reassured him softly. "But I... I really did want to cry for her. It's enough for me to be sad inside and keep it there. As long as I know how I feel, no one else has to see."

"Cain..." He crawled over to him and wrapped his arms around his chest from behind. "Dorothy's not coming back. She has no control over you now..."

"It's not just her." He leaned against Rion and exhaled heavily as if releasing all his tensions. "It's..."

_Birdman._

"I'm okay. I think...I'll stay home today." Catching one of Rion's hands, Cain brought it to his lips. "Isn't it funny how things work? One blink, you come into being. Two blinks, you're dead. Human life is so fleeting. As Galerians, we would stay young and have to watch her grow older and older."

"In some ways, I always felt that her soul was so much older than ours to begin with."

_Lilia... Do you know how much you've done for me?_


	6. Unscrewed

Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: This is really violent. And sacrilegious, if you consider fighting in a church as that. If you like Birdman, you might want to kill me. Actually, if you like any of the characters, you might want to. I'm going to...flee.

Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (I want to bash Akito in the head, so we're even. XD), The-Dark's-Familiar (Yes, more Galerians yaoi! We need all the Galerians yaoi we can get. The cat's in this chapter. As for Lilia, she had her powers, but she just never needed to use them.), Albel's Fate (I had an idea about Ash's body, too, and I thought it'd be fun to write, what with his and Cain's difficulties of getting along. But I couldn't think of a good explanation of how that would happen. About Birdman... Uh-oh. XD), minachiko (I love this game! Such a cool game should definitely be more popular.), DG-Sama (I love your fanart! Especially the dildo one. XD And the lineart was quite cool.), Riku Aros (Hot in pants! That made me laugh.), and CuddlyChristina2004.

Chapter Six - Unscrewed

"Can you leave yet?" Cain leaned over the counter, head in his hands, watching Rion's activities with interest. "Maybe I should get a job here... Aren't you the only one who works here besides that guy?"

"Yeah." He walked around the counter, grabbing his coat and throwing a glance over his shoulder at the clock to make sure it was time to lock up. _If Cain worked here..._ His mind flashed to things that...were probably better left at home. Unfortunately.

Rita must have been thinking the same thing, because she sighed and muttered, "Nice try, Cain, but I think Rion comes here to _work_."

"I did think it was a nice try."

Rita shook her head and pushed open the door, sending a blast of freezing air into Rion's lungs and up his sleeves.

Silently Cain added, /You'd still work. Heh./

/And you call Ash a pervert.../

/Ugh... Don't even mention him. He doesn't even know me, but he thinks it's okay to grab my ass?/

They began walking down the sidewalk to their apartment. It was almost unbearable during the dead of winter. The wind whipped into Rion's eyes, and all he could do was shuffle along, hands in his pockets. They journeyed past the tiny cemetery. It may have been a childish superstition, but Rion held his breath, anyway. It nagged at him that Lilia was there.

"Rion, you're quiet..." Cain noticed, observing him out of the corner of his eye.

"I was...holding my breath," he confessed. It sounded stupider when he said it out loud.

"Why? Is that some kind of human thing?" Rita persisted curiously.

Neither of them understood how ridiculous it was, or he was sure that they would have teased him. "Just because," he lied, not wanting to worry them. After all, they thought he was getting better about it. He wondered if he ever really would.

"What's _she_ doing here?" Rita questioned unexpectedly.

A small girl, no higher than their knees, was running toward them frantically. At the same time, she was trying to check behind her. Consequently, she stumbled and crumpled on the sidewalk. They were only a few feet away from her, so it required little effort to run to her.

"Are you all right?" Rita asked, gently reaching for her.

The girl latched onto her immediately, sobbing. Now that she was close enough, Rion could get a good look at her and was horrified by what he saw. Her coat was missing, the rest of her clothes were oddly askew, and her long, dark hair was in tangles. Her skin was so red that it appeared to be raw. Rion would have attributed it all to the harsh weather, had he not seen that there were...marks...

Like she had been attacked.

As he began to fully grasp the situation, Rion lifted his head to meet Cain's eyes. The expression he got in return was grim, resolute. Slowly, Cain looked to where the girl had come from, a narrow alley.

"I'll be right back, okay?"

"Cain. No." Rita grabbed him firmly by the arm, but he just shook her off, as if he hadn't heard her. "Cain, you _can't_ do this!"

This seemed to upset the girl even further. "N-no, that's where he is!"

"Rion, go after him, please!" Rita pleaded, looking off in the direction that he had gone. "He'll kill him!"

_I don't care about whoever did this so much as..._ Cain was the only thing on his mind. He was aware that Cain was highly capable, but the person he was going after could have a weapon. Then there was the matter that if Cain was caught, he would be charged with murder.

"Cain!" he called. The crunching of his own boots was all that answered him. His breath came faster. Everything did. He turned a corner and another and another, not really giving thought to where he was going. Not that it mattered, as he had nowhere else to go. The things in front of him – brick, snow, footprints – swam blurrily in his field of vision.

"Cai –" The rest of his name got stuck in Rion's throat.

Cain was sitting on a man's chest, boots digging into the snow, hands clenching his neck. Blood was splattered all about them, most of it soaking through the shoulder of Cain's coat.

"I... I didn't..." the man rasped, weeping pitifully.

"Shut up," Cain whispered. "Shut up, you sick fuck." His hands began to crackle with electricity.

_Stop it...!_ But the words wouldn't come. Rion was rooted to the ground, perfectly quiet and not protesting, as Cain sent shockwave after shockwave coursing into the body below him. Blood ran in rivulets out the man's eyes, nose, and ears, staining Cain's hands bright crimson.

A moment later, and the only things heard were panting and the echoes of the man's screams. The smell of burnt flesh stung his nose.

"Why did you kill him?"

Cain stood up unceremoniously, still staring at the battered corpse below him. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"Who am I to say that you shouldn't kill, when I've killed all those people?"

"That was in self-defense, Rion. This wasn't."

"Then why?" And here he already knew.

"Because I have no tolerance for that," Cain answered simply.

Snowflakes dusted over the man's face, covering up his wide eyes that were frozen in an eternal, glassy stare of shock. Rion watched, transfixed, as the snow gradually began to soak up the spilled blood.

"Your shoulder... What happened?" Rion had begun to regain control of himself and what was going on. The man was nameless to him, but Cain could've been gravely wounded.

"Knife. It's not that bad." He started walking at about the time Rion did, so they met halfway.

Rion numbly wrapped his arms around Cain's neck, deeply breathing in his scent as it fused with the sharp winter air. "That was...the stupidest thing you have ever done." _I knew... I knew that something was going to happen to him._

"Cain!" Rita was holding the girl up with an arm while surveying the damage. "Cain... You..."

"How is she?" he inquired brusquely.

"He didn't fully...but I'm taking her to the police station. You should get out of here as soon as possible," Rita directed.

"The police station –" Cain started.

"I'm keeping the details vague. There's plenty of crime around here for them to be confused about who to pin this on," she explained. "Cain, I understand why you did what you did –"

"What he did was horrible and selfish," Cain spat. "She's only a little girl... I can almost bet that there's no one out there who's going to miss him."

"That doesn't make it right for you to _kill_ him!"

"You don't understand at all!" Cain snapped.

Rita had had enough. "Cain, stop it!"

As a result of their outbursts, the child began to cry quietly again, her wails muffled in Rita's coat.

"I'm...going to leave now..." She cast one more glance at them. "Cain, you at least owe Rion an explanation."

"Come on. Let's go home." Cain's voice was completely devoid of emotion.

Rion forced himself not to look at the body and followed Cain. He didn't expect an explanation, and, really, it wasn't like he could blame Cain. They had all suffered in different ways. Rion still couldn't even approach a hospital without fear gripping his stomach, so if pedophiles made Cain go into a homicidal rage, he wasn't about to chide him.

"You're probably wondering what the fuck just happened, right?" Cain guessed.

Rion sucked in air. _I have to do this._ "Actually, I already know."

Cain let out a short laugh. "No, you don't. You really don't, but that's okay."

"I've known for awhile now. About Birdman."

Cain stopped moving. Entirely. "So, who told you? Was it Rita?"

"The night you were drunk." He paused, gazing at Cain's back, waiting for him to say something.

He didn't.

"You told me."

Cain slumped to the ground, laughing softly. "Christ... Did I...get into details?"

"No."

"Good. That's good. I don't want you to know just how much of whore I was." Cain drew his knees up to his chest and rested his forehead on them, despite the fact that he was sitting in snow.

"You told me that you didn't want it..." Rion stepped behind him and placed his hands on his shoulders. "Cain..."

"I'm really...ashamed. I didn't want you to think any less of me. That's why I didn't tell you before. I'm sorry... I know you deserved to know."

"I never thought any less of you then, and I still don't."

Cain shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if I deserve you."

"That makes no sense to me." Rion kneeled behind him and embraced him, sending hot breath dancing on his exposed neck. "I've always loved you as you are."

Cain didn't answer.

For once, Rion wasn't going to silently anguish over something that had slipped out. He wanted Cain to know. He had for some time now.

"It doesn't bother you that we haven't had sex yet?"

"We had sex." Rion definitely wasn't about to forget that.

"Like sex sex."

"I'll wait for you. I really..." He smiled slightly. "...don't know what to do in the first place."

"Heh. It's not as complicated as it sounds, trust me. It didn't even feel that good. I would probably hurt you."

"You're biased," Rion pointed out, grazing Cain's uninjured shoulder with his lips.

"I am."

/-/

"You know what? You've been getting along better with Ash..."

"What...?" Cain mumbled sleepily. He had just been on the brink of falling asleep, tired from their previous activities. "...Are you crazy?"

"Yeah."

"That must be the sleep deprivation talking."

/-/

Rion and Cain were lying side-by-side on the bed in the living room, with Sleeves nestled in between them, exhausted after a long day of working. Even though it was Sunday, they had had to stay busy while Rita got to stay home with Rainheart.

Cain groaned. "Is she _still_ taking a bath? It's been like an hour."

"The water's running..." Rion noticed. "Maybe I'm so tired that time drags by slower."

"No, I'm pretty sure. The humidity... It's almost like smoke."

They lay there, content for the most part, besides knowing about the outrageous amount of water that Rita was using. Curled up with his head on Cain's chest, Rion was almost asleep, when the loudest ringing he had ever heard in his life began. It also jarred Cain awake. They stared at each other, each apparently as confused as the other.

"What is that?" Rion asked, wincing. It hurt his ears.

"A...bell..." Abruptly, Cain's eyes widened, and he bolted upright, scrambling to get off the bed. "Fuck! It's the fire alarm! Rion, grab the cat and –"

"What about Rita and Rainheart?!"

"Get out of here!" Cain insisted. "I'll make sure that they do!"

"No chance in _hell_. I'm going to wake Rainheart up. You can tell Rita."

They hurried down the hall, Rion with the cat in his arms. The smoke was getting thicker, and Rion knew from experience that Rainheart was the hardest person to wake up.

He heard Cain loudly call Rita's name from the other room, then his voice became fainter...

"Rainheart!" He shook him, dropping the cat. "Get up! There's a fire! Rainheart!" No response. He shouted until his throat was raw. Nothing. With a burst of energy, he slammed his palms into Rainheart's prone body in an effort to get him to turn over. "Rainheart! Come on, get –"

Rainheart's eyes were open. So was his mouth. His expression was frozen in one of terror. He hadn't been sleeping at all.

There was a butcher knife, one that they had kept in the kitchen, embedded in his chest.

Rion was vaguely aware of screaming once, twice, before tumbling to the floor. He landed awkwardly on his ankle, shooting pain up his leg, but it was only a fleeting realization. _Ohmygodohmygodnonono..._ "Cain!" he gasped out, choking. "Cain..." Stretching his hand out for the doorframe, he managed to latch onto it and pull himself up. "Cain... Rainheart is..." He leaned against the wall, sobbing so hard that he couldn't breathe. His head was pounding, and the persistent ringing of the fire alarm wasn't helping.

"Oh, my god," Cain whispered underneath the hand that was covering his mouth. He looked up into Rion's eyes and back in the direction where the tub was.

Where Rita should've been seen sitting up to take a bath, there was only an arm hanging limply over the edge. Her long, sharp nails were painted scarlet.

He knew he would find it if he looked. But he just couldn't stop dragging himself closer.

"Oh, my god," Cain kept repeating. "Rion, don't look... I'm going to be sick..." He crawled to the toilet and, with shaking fingers, lifted the lid up. "I'm – I'm going to throw up..."

Rion closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of vomit splash into the toilet. He would at least give Cain the decency of throwing up without having to be watched.

"Rion... Could you..." He wiped his mouth with his arm, slumping against the lid. "Could you scan it? Please. Please, all you have to do is nod to tell me if it was...him."

_I don't want to this..._ his brain hummed, but what he did was approach the tub. As he got closer, the humming escalated into cries. His stomach seized up, and he drew in a shuddering breath, trying to calm it. It didn't work.

He bent over the tub.

She was staring fixedly at the ceiling, completely bare, with glass shards driven into her throat.

"They're from the mirror..." came Cain's voice, so soft that Rion at first wondered if it had been his own thoughts.

Pointlessly, Rion shut off the water, clutching his abdomen and attempting to regain some level of normal oxygen flow. He breathed in deeply again and held up his hand –

"_Cain, is that you? I just started the water."_

_A pause._

"_Quit trying to scare me. I can hear you. You shouldn't be pissed about having to work today, when you volunt –"_

_Birdman. Birdman was there, and she knew._

"_You bastard! You son of a bitch, if you hurt any of them –!" She leapt to her feet, apparently unaffected by her own nakedness in front of him._

_He laughed giddily, high-pitched, screeching and painful to his ears._

"_I'll kill you..." she threatened. "...before you ever touch him again..."_

"_You know he had it coming," he informed her casually, sitting on the edge of the tub. "You know he deserved it."_

"_How dare you..."_

_Snickering, Birdman shook his head. "He said that to me. Does he get it from you?"_

"_I know how he fought you... I know he did... He just wasn't strong enough... You fucker, he was still a child!"_

"_You weren't there to see how much he enjoyed it."_

_Anger stole across Rita's face as she raised her hand. The mirror splintered, the pieces hurtling._

_That was the exact moment when Birdman decided to disappear into thin air leaving her in the direct path of the glass, the moment when the shards –_

Rion started, springing away from the tub and cracking the back of his head into the sink. He bit his lip to stifle his cry of pain, letting the air hiss out between his teeth. And found that there wasn't much clean air to replace it with. The bathroom was filled with a heavy, suffocating smog so thick that he could barely distinguish where Cain was.

"Rion..." Cain coughed violently, huddled up on the ground. "Are you...?" But he was unable to speak as another bout of coughing took over his body.

"We have to get out of here _now_..." Amazingly, he remembered to cover his nose with his shirt and do the same for Cain. "Cain, come on! I can't carry you! My ankle..."

Cain clung to him, laying his head on his lap. "I can't... If we die..."

"We don't have to!" he shouted, struggling to stand. Again, his ankle gave out. "Fuck..." His eyes were stinging with the smoke and all that had happened. It felt like he was condemned to death...

Maybe they were.

"Rion, give me a second..."

"What...?"

Cain stood up on wobbly legs and hauled him up, fumbling to put Rion's shirt back over his nose. "I'm going to carry you. Just hop up."

Rion nodded and used his good foot to jump up, wondering what had sparked the sudden change over Cain. He was being carried bridal style, and under different circumstances, he might have laughed. They made their way slowly through the apartment, but it was so difficult to see... Rion wasn't sure how they would be able to make it out of here, let alone the entire complex. But at last, Cain shoved his shoulder into something, and it gave way – Rion realized that it was the door.

They continued like this down two flights of stairs, and that was even more tedious. One misplaced step could lead to a broken neck.

The heat was intense, searing into his skin, but he held his breath and wrapped his arms around Cain as tightly as he could. Cain was _hacking_ now, grasping for air –

All at once, there was light, and cold air rushed over his body. He could hear commotion from other people, but their voices sounded distant and incoherent... He caught a flash of Cain's soot-coated face, the burning building... Then there was the strangest sensation of falling...

/-/

"He's waking up. Give him space..."

Rion opened his eyes and found himself having to squint because of the brightness of the winter sky and snow. It was all too white. He stared up at the faces peering down at him with trepidation. It was freezing... A coat that he didn't recognize was covering him, and he was lying on someone else's quilt.

_Wait... Cain!_

"Cain! Cain, where are you?!" He tried to leap to his feet, forgetting about his ankle, and immediately cried out and landed flat on his face.

"Take it easy..." one of the onlookers advised.

"His foot... Is he talking about his brother?"

Rion wasn't about to correct them. Instead, he went along with it. He felt uncontrollably nauseated. "Yes, where is he?!"

"Rion, I'm right here."

Cain had been sitting on a blanket next to him the entire time. He eyed him evenly, as if they hadn't just been a few minutes away from death. "You feeling o –"

He was cut off as Rion threw his arms around him and tackled him flat on his back. "Yes, I'm fine... You're alive..."

"Yeah." He hugged Rion back and kissed him lightly on the lips, ignoring the people standing around them. "It's fucking cold out here."

"I –" It seemed rather pointless to say, after the loss of Rainheart and Rita. "The cat... I dropped Sleeves."

"That stupid cat got about before we did. Someone else will take him for us... We've got to get going."

"What?" To say that Rion was confused would be an understatement. "But we just..."

"You should really stay!" an older woman scolded. "It's a miracle that you even survived that."

"Ah... No, thanks." Cain waved, dragging Rion to his feet. "We really have to leave. Sorry."

"Cain?" He was being pulled along with one arm around Cain's neck for support.

"If we don't hurry, he'll find us."

"I think he will, no matter where we go..."

Cain shook his head, breathing hard with the effort of marching through the snow while helping Rion walk. "All those people back there have nothing to do with this, though. They've already had their homes burnt down to the ground. He would kill them all."

Rion said nothing after that. He knew that Cain was right.

It was slow progress.

/-/

"I expected it to be open, but it looks like there's no one here..." Cain commented, pushing open the giant wooden doors.

"How did you know the way here?" Rion asked, studying the vaulted ceiling, the ornate stained glass, the piano, and most noticeable, the giant gold cross behind the altar.

"Rita..." Cain stopped at her name. "Rita took...Rainheart and I to this church a long time ago to see what the humans' god was like."

"What did you think?" Rion limped over to one of the many pews and rested on it. The seat, red like the carpet behind the altar, was inhumanely stiff, but he took comfort in it, anyway.

"It was boring and really confusing. I don't know whether this god is merciful or brutal." Cain walked past Rion and the rows of pews, gazing up at the cross.

"I was always taught that he's both," he remembered, thinking back to what Dr. Steiner had told him.

"Do you believe in god?"

"No."

"Neither do I... I just can't believe, and if there is a god, then why didn't god intervene when Mothe – when Dorothy tried to become her own god?"

Rion leaned against the side of the pew, observing Cain through half-closed eyes as he examined the Bible at the altar. "I'm tired... You should get some sleep."

"I can't... I can't stop thinking about them, and I'm too nervous."

"_I'll kill you...before you ever touch him again..."_

"So am I..." he whispered. It was unlikely that Cain heard him. He blinked a few times, but it didn't stop his eyes from burning with tears again.

"Why do they need such a thick book?" Cain frowned, flipping through what looked like the beginning pages of the Bible from where Rion was lying. "'And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field,'" he read aloud, "'that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and...slew –'" The book slid out of his hands and landed on the floor with a thump. He backed away from it, and then jerked his head up. "Rion –"

Before Rion had a chance to react, the pew was swept out from underneath him. He rolled to the side, but it was too late. The pew crashed onto his back with crushing force. _Can't breathe..._ His lungs smoldered with the exertion it took to just inhale. Elevating his head, he looked to the side and saw...screws? Someone had to have unscrewed the pews from the floor, allowing this to happen. He could barely see anything, lying on the floor like this with the pews blocking his view.

"Your name suits you, don't you think, Cain?"

If Rion couldn't tell by the voice, he could tell by the insane giggle that followed. The screws had been forced out psychically. "Bird...man..." he forced out, gasping for air. _I killed you once. I can do it again._ If only he wasn't in this position.

"Yes, Rion?" Birdman asked in a mockingly polite tone.

Rion's breath – though he couldn't spare it – caught as he glimpsed boots scuff the ground beside his head. Birdman bent down, tugging on his hair sharply enough to bring him at eye level.

"Don't fucking touch him!" Cain screamed. "I'll kill you!"

Birdman pressed a simple kiss to his cheek, but his lips were clammy, and they belonged to a man who had...

Sickened, Rion screwed his eyes shut as he was flung to the ground again.

"I think it's kind of intriguing, how similar you look... Tell me, Cain, did you enjoy fucking _yourself_? You have to really love yourself to go that far."

"You're one to talk about that!" Cain spat. "You always were a selfish –"

"I could snap his neck if I wanted," Birdman interrupted laughingly. "He looks like you, but he's not you."

"I – hate – you! Why?! Why did you do this?!"

"To punish you. To punish you all for disobeying Mother," Birdman explained calmly. "Didn't I tell you enough in that room? It really was your fault... You brought it upon yourself, don't you think?"

"Shut up! Just shut the _fuck_ up! I'm going to kill you! She was never any mother of mine!"

Rion bit his lip painfully hard. Cain was in danger, and he couldn't even help him _or_ see what was happening. He had become numb from the neck down. The paralysis that had seeped into his body had the potential to damn them both.

"You..." Cain continued. "You're a coward... You killed Rainheart in his _sleep_, and Rita was in a bathtub... You're disgusting! Were you afraid that Rita would be able to stop you, like she always had?!"

"You always needed her to!" Birdman shot back, all traces of amusement now absent from his voice. "You were too weak –"

"I was _fourteen_, you pathetic bastard! Fourteen... But I'm not now. I'm ready to kill you for what you did. Ah!"

Rion desperately wondered what was going on. From the sounds of things, it seemed like Birdman had appeared behind him. He strained to hear more, but all he could make out were Cain's gasps.

"I could kill you now...snap your neck in two. Would that make you feel better?"

"You won't kill me," Cain gritted out. "Even when I wanted you to, you wouldn't."

"I wouldn't be able to play with you, then..."

"Stop...touching me!"

Crackling echoed in Rion's ears. Then laughter. Thud after thud of Nalcon. Rion clenched his eyes shut, flinching as Cain cried out.

Wood snapping.

This time, it wasn't Cain's lips that the screams tumbled over.

"Rion..." he heard faintly. "Are you all right?"

_Cain. Oh, god._ Barely able to keep breathing, he couldn't answer.

Then Cain was there, _alive_, prying the pew off him and tipping it over on its side, gathering him in his arms. He ran his fingers through his hair and kissed him all over his face – so fervently that it would've been comical if it weren't for their present situation.

"What happened?" Rion mumbled against Cain's lips.

But Cain didn't answer. He just held him for a few more seconds and wordlessly stood up and guided him to where Birdman lay. The nearby piano had been shattered beyond recognition. There were only keys and a trail of piano wire...

Which led straight to Birdman's neck and limbs.

"When we were escaping from the apartment, I was able to grab some D-Felon on the way out..." He sunk to his knees in front of Birdman's mangled body. "It was like a noose of piano wire."

"Cain..." Rion reached out for his shoulder, which was now shaking. He couldn't tell if it was from laughter or... But Cain didn't cry.

"My eyes..." he whispered. "My eyes are stinging..." Cain rose, heading for the door.

"Cain?"

Cain smiled slightly, and it was only a shadow of what his smile used to be like, but Rion noticed...

There were tears in his eyes.

"We should leave," he suggested. "I hope we can find somewhere to stay."

"Cain..." Rion remembered as Cain turned away. "That fire... You were suddenly able to stand up."

Cain smiled that same mirthless smile again. "I still have you, after all."


	7. Epilogue

Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: The epilogue was so short that I posted it up with chapter six. I had a lot of fun writing this and talking to you guys, and I hope I did an awesome game like Galerians justice. The editor thing here crammed some words together, so I had to fix them. Oh, and I have one more thing to say – Remember the first thing Cain said to Rion in chapter one? :D

Epilogue

"I've never seen those before." Rion stopped at the flowers by the sidewalk. The ends of their long, narrow petals were bright blue, surrounding a white and yellow center. "Isn't it kind of early for flowers to come up?"

It was spring, but it was cold enough that they had to wear coats still, even with the snow melted.

Cain sat on his heels beside them. "This old lady who used to live by us told me about these once. They're called Glory of the Snow, and they're one of the first flowers to appear after the snow melts." He snapped the stem of one and motioned for Rion to bend down.

"What?"

To answer him, Cain tucked it behind an ear. "I love you," he informed him seriously. Then a smile edged onto his lips. "It brings out your eyes...Miss Rion."

Rion mock-glared at him, ready to attack, but Cain was already running away. "Cain!"

"Hey..." Cain smirked back at him. "Hey, it's okay...!"

Rion chased after him, anyway.


End file.
